The year 1994 was a memorable one in China's automobile history, especially in its car history. In this year, the "Automobile Industry Developing Policy" was published. It keenly showed the Chinese Government's persistent efforts in establishing a more transparent environment of policies and laws to propel the healthy development of this trade. Also, this was the first time for the government to relate "automobile" to "family".
From 1994 to 1995, the total output of national automobile increased by100,000; among them, the car increased by 85,000.
In the early period of the planned economy, the Chinese auto industry mainly produced cargo vehicles, in order to meet the economic, national defense, and government of the time. So for a long time, China's car industry did not have a "macroclimate."
But since 1994, the enthusiasm caused by the concept of the family automobile spread to the whole country. The structure of the auto consumption market arose at the historic moment, and since then, private purchase has increased rapidly.
By 1998, the total outputs of the Chinese automobile reached 1,628,000, making China become the world's tenth largest car-making country. Since then, the "family automobile" has no longer been a focus, replaced instead by the auto industry's survival and development after China's WTO (World Trade Organization) accession in 2001.
A Future with Opportunities and Challenges
Presently, with the quick development of the national economy and the further reform of the economic system toward a market economy, the auto industry's structure has changed again. The focus of competition among auto manufacturers is shifting to product grade, function, performance, and quality. The trend of duplicated construction and the blind launch of new projects has been curbed, the momentum of merge and acquisitions has been enhanced, and the scale economic effect has begun to emerge.
With the further opening of the Chinese market and the country's WTO commitments, China's automotive industry will face fiercer competition from huge global companies.
Editor: Liu Anqi | Source: chinaculture.org