Chinese drivers switch lanes, follow US motorists in buying more used cars
- Sales of pre-owned vehicles in China jumped by more than 11 per cent last year
- Chinese consumers are showing increased confidence in second-hand cars
Chinese consumers, whose penchant for frequent upgrades created the world’s largest automobile market in a generation, are discovering of late that new is not everything.
They are switching gears to buy second-hand cars, eschewing first-hand models, as economic growth in mainland China weakens to its slowest pace in decades and an ongoing trade war with the United States spills over into uncertainties about investment and job prospects.
Beijing, pushing its electric vehicle market, is making it harder for start-ups to enter as it fights overcapacity
Consumer confidence in second-hand cars is also being boosted by an evolving ecosystem of financing, used-car dealerships, better ownership data and insurance.
Yu Haipeng, 47, who works with a European company in Shanghai that exports Chinese-made leather shoes and bags, said in an interview: “Pre-owned cars were not my choice a decade ago, when I bought my first car.
“People like me felt at the time that it was disgraceful to buy a second-hand vehicle.”
But trends are changing. Transactions involving new cars fell by 2.8 per cent in 2018 to 28.1 million units, while sales of second-hand vehicles jumped by 11.5 per cent to 13.8 million units. The ratio of second-hand vehicles to new models stood at 49.1 per cent, a 6 percentage point growth over 43 per cent in 2017, according to the China Automobile Dealers Association.