Korean media: "Foreign cars are out of favor"? A sharp decline in Chinese auto imports!
On April 29, a South Korean newspaper, the Everyday Economy, published an article stating that China's auto imports have plummeted to half their level over the past 10 years. Due to China's electric vehicle transformation, the import of internal combustion engine vehicles has sharply decreased, and imported vehicles can barely be sustained, mainly by some luxury brands such as BMW.
Recently, data released by the China Passenger Vehicle Market Information Joint Conference showed that last year China's auto imports amounted to 700,000 units, a year-on-year decrease of 12%. In the first quarter of this year, the import volume was 95,000 units, a year-on-year decrease of 39%, which is an unprecedented drop even when considering recent records.
In March, the import volume fell by 27% year-on-year to 39,000 units, with a slight slowdown in the decline. The China Passenger Vehicle Market Information Joint Conference stated that at present, the demand for imported cars is mainly supported by German premium brands "BBA (Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi)", while the import of other complete vehicle brands is rapidly declining. China's auto imports surged from 310,000 units in 2007 to a record high of 1.43 million units in 2014 and have been on a downward trend ever since.
Over the 10 years from 2015 to 2024, there was only one year of growth in imports, which was 2017. In the first quarter of this year, the import volumes by country were as follows: Japan 30,517 units, Germany 23,695 units, Slovakia 17,733 units, the United States 8,871 units, and the United Kingdom 8,371 units. The import volume from South Korea was 359 units. Cui Dongshu, Secretary-General of the China Passenger Vehicle Market Information Joint Conference, analyzed that with the continuous growth of China's auto industry and the progress of its electric vehicle transformation, the demand for internal combustion engine vehicles is shrinking, leading to a sharp decline in the demand for imported internal combustion engine vehicles.
Source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1830739919407385/
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