Cripes! Chinese Have To Wait Until Next Year For Their Imported Car

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

According to lore, China has closed off its market to foreign car importers, and is ready to flood the world with cheapmobiles.

Just the opposite is true.

China’s car exports are going nowhere. China’s car imports on the other hand caught everybody by surprise, especially the automakers that can’t bring cars fast enough to the Middle Kingdom.

Some Chinese car buyers have to wait until next year to get hold of imported autos they have ordered, reports Shanghai Daily, “ as increasing demand has led to a shortage of such vehicles.”

“Imported auto sales have been rising every year, faster than suppliers’ expectations,” said Sun Jian, a franchised dealer for Land Rover. “They have underestimated China’s potential.”


For the first seven months of this year, imported car sales rose 152 percent year on year to 450,960 units. The China Passenger Car Association, expects imports to exceed 700,000 units this year and to eclipse 1million in 2011.

Of course, there are conspiracy theorists. Some say the shortage is artificial, so that dealers can charge extra fees if buyers want the cars earlier. Which of course is baloney. No sales director is holding back sales he can book into the current period. As with China being pretty much the only growth market, they are shoveling in as many as they can. It just takes a little planning, and that can get overtaken by events.

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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  • Bertel Schmitt Bertel Schmitt on Sep 26, 2010

    The tribulations to export you car to China are pretty much the same as exporting it to Europe

    1.) You submit it to CCC testing (in Europe: European Whole Vehicle Type Approval)

    2.) You pay your import duty (last I looked it was 25%)

    3.) You are good to go.

    The importers I know are not griping about government restrictions. The are furious that they aren't getting enough product.

    Grey imported Mustangs have been spotted in Beijing.

    And come on: "Why is there VAT for China imports but not exports?" Do you pay sales tax if you export your car from the U.S.? Do you pay VAT if you export it from Europe? Actually, China is one of the few countries that does selective VAT refunds for certain product categories on export.

  • John Horner John Horner on Sep 26, 2010

    "2.) You pay your import duty (last I looked it was 25%)"

    25% import duties sound about right, and it is long past time for the US to impose them.

    • Th009 Th009 on Sep 26, 2010

      @John Horner, For trucks, the 25% "chicken tax" has been in place for almost 50 years in the US. Long past time to repeal that one, I say.

  • Porschespeed Porschespeed on Sep 28, 2010

    The smoke and mirrors just keep on rollin'. Bertel, please. Just give one example of a non-post-war-scenario economy that grossly grew exports with a NON-devaued currency. Just one. While you may be able to personally cash out your 10MM USD stake, the reality remains that the 'big players' can't by virtue of the exchange rate of the yuan. Please explain to all us idiots how while the Chicoms won't let it float on the open market, the renmibi is still a fairly valued currency.

  • M 1 M 1 on Sep 28, 2010

    When TTAC posts articles like this, you should take care to differentiate between "manufacturers" and "importers"... the Chinese market remains very closed to importers. Not so much if you own factories and can afford to spend billions in-country. Bertel's comments above about "submitting it to CCC testing" is kind of like throwing out a one-liner to describe Bill Gates' legendary efforts to bring his 959 into the US all those years ago. CCC testing is a tedious, time-consuming, bureaucracy and red-tape laden, and above all very, very expensive affair -- which must be repeated every 18 months or so, and only applies to a single model of an affected product, and is only an option for manufacturers. It absolutely is not something that could ever support one-off "gray market" imports (if it was intended to somehow relate to the subsequent comment about the Mustang).

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