Domestic automakers target SUVs to bolster market share
Print Edition
CHINESE carmakers hope to shine at the Auto Shanghai 2015 as they show off technical upgrades and position themselves strategically in the sport-utility vehicle segment in a bid to raise their share of the world’s largest auto market.
SAIC Motor, the country’s biggest carmaker and the owner of local brands Roewe and MG, launched its first SUV that features a new all-wheel drive system at the show.
The system will be the first upgrade of its kind among domestic automakers, Xue Jinda, managing director of its supplier Shanghai GKN Huayu Driveline Systems Co, told Shanghai Daily during the show’s media preview yesterday.
The Shanghai-based automaker has plans to introduce “NetBlue” — a self-developed power unit that can save over 20 percent fuel and generate 20 percent more power — to later vehicle models by 2020, said its statement.
Great Wall Motor Co yesterday started selling its new Havel premium H6 Coupe and high-end H8 type to expand its footprint in the SUV market.
Sales of domestically made SUVs in China have surged 108 percent year on year to 728,900 units in the first quarter, compared with a 48.8 percent growth of all SUVs sold in China for the same period, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
“Demand in tier-three and tier-four cities flourishes with rising disposable income,” said Hou Yankun, head of China equity and Asian auto research at UBS.
The show, held at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), will display a total of 1,343 vehicles, with 109 of them making their world debut and 44 on their Asian debut.
Automakers, with Chinese government backing, are making a renewed push for new-energy vehicles, displaying the latest fully electric models and hybrids.
Volkswagen announced plans to locally produce more than 15 new-energy vehicles in China in the next four years, while General Motors will launch a plug-in hybrid version of its Cadillac brand CT6 sedan.
But the Chinese market for electric cars remains small owing to perceived problems with reliability and access to charging facilities.
Electric and hybrid vehicle sales in the country reached 26,581 in the first quarter of this year, three times the same period in 2014 but still accounting for less than 1 percent of total sales, according to the CAAM.
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