Every article related to the automotive industry.

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China car market slowdown

With a population of almost 1.4 billion people, China is one of the largest markets for car makers. However, despite being the world’s leading car producing country in 2015, car sales in China have been experiencing a marked slow-down.

After 10 years of rapid growth, Chinese car sales took a turn and declined in 2018. Approximately 23 million new passenger cars were sold during the year. This number is even lower than 2016 sales which amounted to 24 million units sold.

One of the reasons for this decline in car sales might be the China’s cooling housing market. It seems that there is a strong correlation between buying a new house and buying a new car for Chinese consumers. Since fewer people bought a new house, there was also less demand for new cars.  

Another reason for this decline could be the change in Chinese consumer behaviour. The second-hand car market is now an attractive option for Chinese car buyers. Despite still being image-conscious, Chinese car buyers are starting to realise that few people on the streets can really tell the difference between new or second-hand cars. More people are seeing cars as no longer a luxury or status symbol, but only as means of transport. It is predicted that by 2020, second-hand car sales will surpass new car sales.

There are many other factors that could affect the Chinese automotive industry. Let’s not forget about developing trends such as ride-hailing and car-pooling, which could also bring opportunities and threats to the market.

If you’d like to find out more about our knowledge in the automotive industry and Chinese consumers, please contact Nimrod.

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Why are we buying fewer cars?

Car manufacturers are facing a big shift in the way that people view car ownership and in the basic interest people have in owning a car. The trend is most pronounced and growing fastest amongst the millennial generation – the group that car manufacturers might have looked to traditionally as their future market.

In 2017, a KPMG study for Business Insider Intelligence has even predicted that by 2025 over 50% of people believe that half of today’s car owners will no longer want to own a car. It’s a massive shift and in an industry that plans years ahead a stark warning for fast changing consumer sentiments and behaviours.

Millennials are identified as leading this new trend.  As this groups comes to maturity and moves to the city in search of work, they are adopting lower cost, resource-sharing, and more convenient on-demand services.  Two key factors are also seen to influence their choices:

  1. Public transportation is getting better

 More and more people are using public transport. In the Asia-Pacific region, 2.29 billion more passengers used public transport from 2016 to 2017 alone.  As smart and connected cities evolve, we are anticipating further transformation of the transportation system, improving connections and convincing more people to abandon the personal car as a preferred option.

  1. Ride-sharing

Ride-sharing has been growing rapidly over recent years. While driving and owning a car is still enjoyable, it also means paying for fuel, insurance, maintenance, and repairs – all of which require a large chuck on the household budget. We believe that millennial consumers will opt for ride-sharing services more and more for the on-demand convenience and low-cost.

Contact Dam to find out more about our automotive experience.

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Real life driving behaviour

Everyone reacts differently in traffic – and in heavy traffic stress levels and behaviours can vary considerably.  Some switch lane frequently, others doggedly stick to their position; some leave big and cautious gaps between vehicles, whilst others squeeze up close; some get competitive with the vehicle in the adjacent lane, whilst others stay firmly in first gear and keep the speed low.

There are now numerous in car features available to enhance safety and provide information and entertainment – and all can help to take the strain in heavy traffic.  We undertook a piece of research to investigate and observe the real use of such features and to identify across various driver profiles what worked well, what was appreciated, and what could use a re-think.  Taking drivers into high stress and heavy traffic situations in five European cities, we were able to evaluate actual driving behaviour and use of newly installed safety, information and entertainment features.  Each car was equipped with sensors, cameras, and data logging equipment, including internal and external video recording and car computer management devices.

Situations over the 4.5 hour drive sought out rush hour traffic and traffic jams, motorways, busy congested inner city streets – and interaction with motorbikes, cyclists, bus lanes and pedestrians.  In addition to technical data gathered concerning the drive and use of the features, the co-driver (our interviewer) was also able to collect further insights into driver satisfaction, frustration, confidence and so on through interviewing and observation.  Each session also concluded with a driver self-completion questionnaire and summary discussion.

The output has been invaluable to understand how best to position and communicate new driving features – and in some cases where to take a step back and re-consider assumptions based on actual driver behaviour and need.  The variety of research techniques and methods meant that this was also a highly efficient and innovative approach – enabling us to gather deep and immediately actionable insights into from the 25 respondents in each of the 5 cities.

To find our more about our automotive experience, or to book a test drive with us, contact Dam.

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