Literally before February of this year, the market was divided between Korean, European manufacturers and AVTOVAZ. Even though Chinese cars were cheaper, they couldn’t fill their niche.
The regular assessment of the visibility of car brands, prepared by Romir experts, shows that 5-6 years ago, Chinese manufacturers were unpopular among Russians, and only now, in recent years, brands such as Chery, Geely and Haval have gained popularity. won among motorists.
Caught by stereotypes
The thing is, in the mid-1990s in China, cars were mostly produced by independent companies that tried to organize the production and sale of their own cars as quickly as possible. Sometimes they just, and not always successfully, copied foreign models. Given the lack of experience and the low technical base, the quality of most of the cars left something to be desired.
Back then, the stereotype of a cheap, but low-quality car was firmly entrenched in Chinese brands, although much work has been done since then. By the end of the 2010s, many Chinese brands have radically redesigned their product lines and improved the design and quality of cars. The assembly has become more accurate, the ergonomic, organoleptic and operational properties of cars have improved. Modern active and passive safety systems began to appear, there was more electronics, both in terms of comfort and entertainment systems and in terms of machine control settings.
Breakthrough
Today, brands already familiar to us focus on more modern equipment, style and clear design. All this ties in with the lifestyle of people in whose field of vision Chinese brands fall. These are people who lead an active lifestyle, play sports, strive to communicate with friends and therefore value their time and money.
Now Chinese cars are trying to convince the buyer not only with the quality of the product, but also with the service. In the ranking of brands in terms of service satisfaction Romir (new vehicle sales and after-sales service), the Chinese Geely came in second in the spring of 2022, with a whopping 16 points since July 2021. Only Hyundai is ahead of it. . Haval also performs well – it is in sixth place. Cherry took a prominent place in the middle of the top 20 (10th place) and showed a positive trend.
Infographics Romir
Buyers:
The target audience has also changed – if 10 years ago the main buyers of Chinese cars were young people and an older group (55+ years old) who needed a budget car, there is now a noticeable shift towards a more solvent segment of 25-45 years old. Today, Chinese brands (especially the leading ones: Haval, Geely, Chery) meet the needs of the target audience, focusing on manufacturability, modernity, style, dynamism and rational price. These people lead an active lifestyle, play sports, strive to communicate with friends and therefore value time and money very much..
The publication is based on the material of Romir expert Lyudmila Fukova and independent expert Sergey Burgazliev.
Photo: Alexander Demyanchuk/TASS