From the first public day on April 25th until the last day on May 2nd, over 800,000 visitors swept past the six halls of the Beijing Auto Show making it the biggest in terms of actual visitors in the world over the period of the show. The peak day on May 1st saw 145,000 visitors go through the entrance gates in a single day, only slightly lower than the Shanghai Expo in terms of visitor numbers?.
A spokesperson for the Beijing Auto Show revealed that the scope and size, as well as new car launches has already eclipsed foreign auto shows. With 89 new cars having their world premier in Beijing, as well as over 1000 production cars and 65 concept cars, its not hard to see why it is now the biggest.
A China car market specialist was quoted as saying that although China only has 30 cars per 1000 people, it appears that there is a large market in China still to develop a taste for cars.
The biggest surprise of the auto show was Huatai, their concept cars (which are nearly production cars) were both surprising in their design and their quality. The obvious shocker was the new Huatai SUV, which had strong Porsche overtones at the front end, however their sedans were amazingly good quality. Huatai was once a first tier producer in China, but slipped back towards the second tier with slightly antiquated models that came from their former Hyundai joint venture. However it seems that Huatai are radically improving their line up and do plan on entering niche markets such as the diesel sedan market, which has so far been off limits to other manufacturers. Huatai bought in their technology from Hyundai, ZF (gearboxes) and VM for engines, all of which they have been improving on over time for their own usage within China, and abroad as well.
Another strong contender at the Beijing Auto Show was Greatwall, whose continual diversification should be considered a text book case for any automaker who wishes to diversify their line up to meet market conditions in a short time frame. Greatwall motors appeared to understand from an early stage that continuing to produce SUVâs and trucks in a market that was quickly turning against gas guzzlers was not the best path of expansion, ultimately Greatwall took the very wise decision to branch out into small cars and then sedans at this years show, with their sedans being on show and alarmingly close to production under the Voleex brand.
For big premium car brands like Bentley and Porsche, the Beijing Show was akin to shooting fish in a barrel with all of the premium brands being able to target the right crowds. Forty luxury cars were sold in total, the biggest prize of the day being a Bugatti Veryon 16.4 Sports model which cost an impressive 38 million RMB. Maserati had six cars on display, and sold five of them during the show, which makes for easier transportation costs back to Maserati China HQ at least. Porsche sold eight models within 3 days, with the most expensive costing over 2 million RMB.
Beijing and Shanghai Auto Shows continue to increase in international prominence every year with major automotive media rushing to cover the show, although these shows claim to call themselves international shows they do lack a good media office for Western media to liaise with, which is a major short coming.
Beijing and Shanghai Auto Shows are considered among the biggest auto shows in the world, but as Chinaâs auto market continues to explode in such a hot way, it wouldnât be overly surprising if they were the worlds biggest auto shows within the next couple of years in terms of visitors and new car launches.
