At the auto show in China, yes, they do drape leggy models in sexy outfits over the hoods of the cars.
What else do you need to know to understand that despite its communist government, this country has the potential to become a consumer society like any other–and bigger than any other?
More than 400,000 people were expected to visit Auto China 2000 over the last week, making it the largest trade show ever in China.
There were Volvos and Alfa-Romeos and the plush Buick sedan built in Shanghai that costs nearly $40,000. But the biggest crowds surging through the city’s main exhibition center were pausing at the least flashy displays, where Chinese joint-venture factories were showing off vehicles that would make an American auto enthusiast long for the stylishness of, say, an old Ford Pinto.
“I like it,” said Grace Li, admiring the Changan corporation’s tiny purple City Baby, a Chinese-made Suzuki. “The color is beautiful.”
She got behind the wheel and couldn’t help smiling. Her boyfriend, Yan Piyong, took a picture of her with his digital camera.
People spent time looking at cars like the little Yuejin Eagle, made in Nanjing with a Spanish partner, because the idea of owning a car is becoming less a fantasy in China and more a possibility.
If you have never owned a car, but someday might, it’s exciting enough to look at plain subcompacts. You don’t need to fantasize about Porsches or Ferraris, neither of which could be found at the show.
“Most of the people here today will be prepared to buy a car in the future, probably within three years,” said Liu Bin, a spokesman for Changan. “This car costs about $12,500,” he said, while sitting in the back seat of a mini-van. “In three years it will probably cost $8,700. The quantity of production is going up, so the costs are coming down.”
A lot of the excitement behind the auto show–from the perspective of bothmanufacturers and consumers–stems from China’s planned entry into the World Trade Organization. With trade, investment and tariff barriers expected to fall, competition will intensify and prices will come down dramatically.
Today China builds about 1.8 million vehicles a year, including about 500,000 passenger cars. By some estimates, that will increase to more than 3 million by 2010.
Foreign automakers already are making a big play for the market. One of the biggest and most surprising signs of China’s potential is the success of General Motors’ Shanghai joint venture, which has sold more than 17,000 Buick sedans there since its introduction last May. The car is so expensive that nobody expected it to sell as well as it has, but unlike its staid image in America, a Buick in China looks as sleek and stylish as a Mercedes-Benz or a BMW as it cruises down Beijing’s bicycle- and taxi-clogged streets.
Like auto shows everywhere, this one made every effort to entice and excite. There were go-go dancers gyrating to the beat around Jialing motorcycles, and a big sound, light and fog show to introduce the lineup of cars from Southeast Motor Corp., a joint venture with Mitsubishi.
Gao Da Sheng, an office interior designer, studied the Freeca, a mini-van, and found it interesting. But he has a soft spot for Fords.
“I admire the Ford family very much,” Gao said. “Henry Ford was a farmer, a peasant, but he modernized the auto industry. He turned a product only used by the nobles into transportation for anyone.”
That spirit–the idea of cars being transformed from unimaginable luxuries into practical purchases made by normal families–permeated the show. Volkswagen estimates that private consumers today account for only about 30 percent of car buyers in China, but that number may reach 50 percent in the not too distant future. .
For a 45-year-old woman named Zhang, an office building manager, car ownership is about three years away, she figures.
But she wants to be prepared, so she stopped by the Dongfeng-Citroen joint-venture display to study the sporty, bubble-top Picasso subcompact, which goes on sale next year for $25,000 to $30,000.
Though it’s a bit pricey–many people at the show were more comfortable with prices around $15,000–Zhang could imagine sitting behind the wheel.
“I’d like to use it to go to the outskirts of Beijing for picnics and things,” she said.
What would a car show be without fantasies?
