China Steps Up Cash For Clunkers

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

As countries in Europe wind down their cash for clunkers programs, China is increasing the bounty on old cars. China’s Ministry of Commerce said that qualified car owners who trade in outdated or “highly polluted” vehicles will receive a subsidy between US$733 and $2635 this year, up from last year’s maximum $878, reports Shanghai Daily.



According to the paper, gasoline-powered cars that fail to meet China’s first generation emission standard (comparable to Euro I,) and diesel vehicles that do not meet the third generation emission standard (comparable to Euro III) count as “highly polluted vehicles.” Cars that do not meet Euro 4 are already banned from big cities such as Beijing or Shanghai.

Last year, China halved the tax on cars with an engine displacement of 1.6 liters or below to 5 percent. As a result, small cars were the driving force behind China’s impressive vehicle sales. For the first 11 months of last year, vehicle sales in China accelerated 42 percent to 12.23m units. China is expected to close out the year with well over 13m units sold. Starting in January 2010, the tax increases to 7.5 percent.

China is targeting to sell more than 15m vehicles in 2010. According to a survey of 21 analysts compiled by Reuters, the U.S.A. is expected to come in anywhere between 10.4m to 11.4m vehicles for 2009. J.D. Power and Associates expects 11.5m vehicles to be sold in the U.S.A. in 2010.

Due to the relatively young fleet in China, the impact of the cash for clunkers program on sales is expected to be small. Banning the heavy polluters from Beijing’s streets, along with other measures, improved air quality considerably.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Mpresley Mpresley on Jan 03, 2010

    I'm not sure where the crud is coming from. I remember traveling from Shenzhen to Guangzhou by Toyota Crown (they like fancy, gaudy, gadget laden cars, you know). It was in the afternoon, about 2PM, and you could stare straight into the sun--looked like a bright moon. The atmosphere was a strange brownish-yellow. Cars everywhere, but at the same time there was so much construction going on that I'm guessing much of the gunk was dirt (red clayish in color-consistancy) that had been displaced and whipped out into the stratosphere. Weird. All the men smoked since the air was so bad anyway.

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