China Daily 0813 D6.Indd

motoringPAGE 18 | MONDAY, AUGUST 13, 2012 CHINA DAILY Xi’an hits reverse on car restriction Rescinds 1-millon limit following public outcry By HAN TIANYANG But the Xi’an plan stirred and GONG ZHENGZHENG strong public complaints, espe- cially on the Internet. Facing In a move that reflects the the pressure, the city govern- myriad challenges facing the ment decided to halt the ini- world’s biggest auto market, the tiative. government of Xi’an last week rescinded a plan to limit new More cities to follow car license plates following a Experts note that it is only a strong public outcry. question of time before more The decision followed an cities take measures to control Aug 1 announcement that the the number of cars as they deal number of motor vehicles in with increasing traffi c and pol- the city would be limited and lution problems. the government would hold Zhang Xin, an auto analyst a hearing to consider public with Guotai Jun’an Securi- opinions. ties, said Shenzhen, Hang- An expert panel organized zhou, Nanjing, Qingdao by the Xi’an city government and Dalian are all mulling previously said the city should similar restrictions on car limit private car ownership to purchases. under 1 million vehicles before Zhong Shi, an indepen- 2015 to solve traffi c congestion dent auto analyst based in problems. Beijing, said it will be a trend According to local statis- for major cities that suffer tics, the number had already severe traffic problems to surpassed 846,000 in May and limit car purchases. He said is on track to easily break the the restrictions will surely 1-million threshold over the affect the auto market since next two years. cities with more traffic con- The Xi’an announcements gestion are usually those came only a month after the with strong purchasing power. Guangzhou metropolitan gov- Guangzhou’s new car sales ernment implemented a highly are expected to decline signifi - controversial policy to restrict cantly under the new policy. the number of new car license Last year, the city registered plates each year to just 120,000. 330,000 new vehicles, nearly Guangzhou became the three times the quota under its PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY fourth city in China to place new regulations. A hopeful buyer in Guangzhou is among those vying for 120,000 plates that will be issued by the metropolis this year. A similar plan by Xi’an has been put on hold. limits on new plates following Aft er Beijing’s sales cap took Beijing, Shanghai and Guiyang eff ect in December 2010, new fi cult to get a car license plate,” the local governments’ mea- What we learned from Shanghai and Zhang with Guotai Jun’an in Guizhou province. car sales in 2011 tumbled by 56 Zhong said. “Thinking that sures to curb sales. added that the fundamen- percent to about 400,000 vehi- it’s once and for all will make Beijing tells us that — whether through tal problem with license plate cles. In comparison, more than them choose more expensive Domestic brands lottery or public auction — such policies restrictions is that infrastructure 846k 700,000 vehicles were sold in vehicles with bigger engine dis- In the first half of 2012, inﬂ uence consumers to buy more expen- can’t keep pace with the increas- the city in 2009 and the num- placement instead of cheap and domestic brands sold 3.15 mil- sive, bigger cars and foreign-branded ing number of cars. ber was nearly 900,000 in 2010. small ones.” lion passenger vehicles includ- Yet limiting in car purchas- vehicles cars.” are already on the road in Xi’an Analysts also warned that “What we learned from ing minivans, a decrease of ing is a half-measure, some ana- the trend will hit domestic Shanghai and Beijing tells us 0.2 percent from a year ear- DONG YANG lysts noted, calling for the local carmakers particularly hard. that — whether through lot- lier, while the overall pas- SECRETARY-GENERAL governments to improve both Th eir main products are small, tery or public auction — such senger vehicle market grew CHINA ASSOCIATION OF AUTOMOBILE MANUFACTURERS public transport and city plan- 56 inexpensive vehicles that tar- policies influence consumers 7.1 percent, according to ning to limit congestion and get mostly first-time buyers, to buy more expensive, bigger statistics from CAAM. pollution. percent drop exactly the most aff ected group cars and foreign-branded cars,” The market share of brands both reported increas- domestic carmakers,” said Lin by the license plate restrictions, said Dong Yang, secretary-gen- domestic passenger vehicles es of more than 1 percentage Huaibin, an auto analyst with Contact the writers at hantian- In new car sales after the Beijing government began a lottery they said. eral of the China Association declined 3 percentage points point in market share, the asso- consultancy IHS Automotive. [email protected] and system to allocate “Consumer psychology of Automobile Manufacturers, to 41.4 percent in the first ciation said. “Th ey still have opportunities in gongzhengzheng@chinadaily. car license plates changes because it’s more dif- who strongly disagreed with half. German and Japanese “But it won’t be a fatal blow to many medium and small cities.” com.cn SHORT TORQUE July sales rise Mercedes-Benz Last month, vehicle sales in China rose by 8.16 percent over July last year to 1.38 million units, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. But the fi gure was down 12.56 percent from June. In the fi rst seven months of the year, vehicle sales in China totaled 10.98 million units, up 3.56 percent from a year ago. raises stake for Fuel price hike On Friday the government raised retail prices for gasoline by 390 uniﬁ ed dealer yuan per ton and diesel by 370 yuan per ton. Th e move, following three consecutive price cuts from May to July, came aft er a rebound in international crude prices. Th e benchmark retail price for gasoline will be raised by 0.29 yuan per liter and diesel by 0.32 yuan per liter, according to the management National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s top economic planner. By HAN TIANYANG (China) Ltd, which sells import- Under China’s current system used since 2009, domestic fuel and GONG ZHENGZHENG prices can be adjusted if international crude oil prices change by ed Mercedes-Benz cars. more than 4 percent over 22 working days. At the end of April, Lei German auto group Daimler Shing Hong owned about 50 Toyota RV4 recall AG, the parent of Mercedes- Mercedes-Benz dealerships in Three-pointed star at a Lei Shing Hong Ltd outlet in the Wangjing area of Beijing. The Hong Kong- Toyota Motor Corp and its Chinese joint venture Tianjin FAW Benz, recently reached an agree- China, almost a quarter of the headquartered company’s share of the sales company for imported Mercedes-Benz cars will fall to Toyota announced a recall of a total of more than 160,000 locally ment with partner Lei Shing German brand’s network of 25 percent, according to an agreement signed on July 26. made and imported RV4 compact sport-utility vehicles beginning Hong Ltd for a bigger stake in more than 210 dealers. on September 3 due to potential rear suspension defects. the luxury brand’s China sales Daimler also runs a joint ven- more than 30 percent. agement of sales activities agreement with Lei Shing Th e aff ected vehicles include 13,474 imported RV4s built between company, its latest move to inte- ture with Beijing-based Chinese About a third of the com- for both imported and local- Hong, we have (taken) the July 21, 2005 and November 28, 2008, as well as 147,310 RV4s locally produced between February 6, 2009 and October 31, 2010. grate sales channels and acceler- automaker BAIC Group that pany’s total deliveries in ly made vehicles. first step with one partner to ate growth in the country. produces and sells Mercedes China are locally made Mer- Previous media reports achieve the second step of a Reshuffl e at Chery Daimler will increase its stake cars including the E-Class and cedes-Benz vehicles. The said that Lei Shing Hong was legally integrated sales organi- Yin Tongyao, president of Chery Automobile, has taken the helm in Mercedes-Benz (China) Ltd C-Class sedans as well as the number is expected to reach the stumbling block in the zation together with BAIC,” he of the domestic carmaker’s sales to implement aggressive internal from 51 to 75 percent through GLK sport-utility vehicle. Th e 70 percent by 2015 as the lux- plan, but the latest stake change said. “We are in these negotia- reshuffl ing in a bid to turn around slumping numbers in a slowing a capital increase, the company tie-up is named Beijing-Benz ury carmaker raises local pro- indicates that the problem has tions but not fi nalized.” market. Former vice-president Lu Jianhui, who was in charge of said in an emailed statement to Automotive Co Ltd. duction capacity. The change been solved. Zetsche said that Mercedes- sales, was moved to another post. China Daily last week. The two separate opera- product mix is also expected to “The increased stake (in Benz will accelerate expan- Chery’s fi rst-half sales tumbled by 11.6 percent year-on-year to 201,200 cars, according to industry data. In the fi rst quarter, it Th e contract was signed on tions have grappled for several aff ect dealer interests.

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