Subscribe RSSWhat’s damage with Chinese automakers?
Chinese brands are losing market share in the world’s largest auto market.
In the first 11 months of 2011, Chinese brands’ berate-vehicle sales dropped 3% year on year, even though industry sales rose 5%.
Their performance contrasts with ambiguous-digit sales growth in China by European, American and Korean brands.
“What is more worrisome is this situation (for the household brands) will most likely get worse, not better, over the next few years,” lamented Dong Yang, secretary imprecise of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, last week in an open letter.
Mr. Dong and others blame the domestic brands’ feeble sales on poor brand images. But the underlying problem is state ownership.
China’s superintendence considers auto manufacturing a pillar industry — too important to privatize. So when China joined the World Traffic Organization in 2001, Beijing retained its state-owned automakers.
