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December 10, 2014

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Home » Business » Auto

Steady drive up for China’s car market

CHINA’S car market may continue to drive upward steadily through 2015 even as efforts accelerate in exploring car sharing as a solution to traffic congestion and vehicle exhaust control, PricewaterhouseCoopers said yesterday in its Autofacts forecasts.

The assembly of light vehicles in the country is likely to hit 23.5 million units in 2015, up 10.6 percent from this year which is on track to grow just over 10 percent.

“China’s automotive sector is quickly maturing with a slowdown in sales and assembly following explosive expansion that started in 2009,” said Wilson Liu, PwC China automotive leader.

Rapid urbanization will continue to drive growth in the auto market, backed by the further localization of major components such as engines and transmissions as well as research and development to meet government regulations and consumer tastes, PwC said.

However, traffic control and purchase curbs in mega cities may help unlock demand for car sharing, an emerging business that allows renting of vehicles for a short period of time, even by the hour, PwC said. This business may dent car sales visibly.

“In theory, the underlying demand for car sharing in China should be higher than in many other countries, considering affordability, traffic congestion and regulatory restrictions,” said Rick Hanna, PwC’s global automotive leader.

PwC expects the car sharing fleet in China to quadruple over the next five years to 16,000 units with help from smartphone technologies.

As well as reducing carbon dioxide emission by 50 percent, each car shared is said to have resulted in up to 10 forgone vehicle purchases in Europe and 13 in the United States.




 

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