Small Cars Are For Capitalist Running Dogs: Chinese SUV Sales Up 33.7%
In the West, SUVs are dog meat. News of this hasn’t reached the Middle Kingdom quite yet. Tired of announcements of falling car sales? Lusting back to the bad old days where there was no replacement for displacement? In China, people buy SUVs as if they are going out of style – or not, as our Dear Leader Farago fancies to say. From January to November, SUV sales in the Chinese market rose 33.7 percent. That according to data released by China’s Association of Automobile Manufacturers, cited in a Gasgoo report. The November sales of SUVs in China totaled 40,300 units, up 9.49 percent from November in the prior year. In the same month, sales for all cars in China actually dropped 14.56 percent. Compared to the market, the Chinese appetite for off-road fare is still ravenous. Biggest sellers amongst the big bad boys are the Honda CR-V, the Great Wall Hover, and the Chery Tiggo. If you still want to enjoy your freedom to burn gallons and churn up dust: Come to the SUV-God’s own country, China. About a third of China is desert, and 40 percent are scrubland.
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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If you where once driving in China outside the beaten tourists path (I was working in inner China) then you know why exactly this type of car is needed badly in rural China areas. In contrary to, winning lust by driving senseless a SUV through Manhattan is to many only explainable by a psychiatrist... ...in China outside the mayor cities there are many nearly inaccessible towns with roads making russian back-streets seem like a Swiss "Autobahn". Very often the the main street ends somewhere at begin of town and many mills or even government offices are often accessible only by unpaved streets. When it gets rainy then a SUV is a real nice tool and in fact the only logical option. And to construct a car based on the rough idea of a Hummer, a technically relative primitive car with technology out of the 70th is no match for a Chinese technician - they have sent a man into space...
Of course, people who need a vehicle buy SUV's (and other light trucks). Cars are a luxury, and an SUV replacing a car is an even bigger luxury, but in reality, it is the SUV that is a necessary vehicle. The car is ALWAYS a luxury. So yes, if you live in Manhattan and buy a vehicle of any kind, it's likely a luxury. I like this line of reasoning, and yes, my SUV is now a luxury since I don't really need one anymore. I choose one because it's the best value and lowest cost of ownership for me.
Just a note: "SUV" is defined to include car-based models. The segment's top seller, as in the U.S., is the Honda CR-V.