(MENAFN- The Peninsula) China's premier auto show, which opened in Shanghai this week, is all about sports utility vehicles (SUVs) - sales of which soared 49 percent on year in the first quarter while growth in the rest of the Chinese market was cooling. More than four million vehicles out of the more than 20 million produced in China in 2014 were SUVs, a number expected to rise to seven million in 2018 and continue to grow, according to analyst group IHS.
Now ubiquitous in Shanghai, these cars -which are raised higher off the ground than sedans but lack the all-terrain pretensions of real adventure vehicles - can be found on the stands of both big Western manufacturers and local brands. Seen as a sign of elevated social status, they are challenging the prevalence of the sedan. "In Europe, crossovers are trying to muscle in on the market share taken by family minivans, while in China they're doing the same with sedans," said Flavien Neuvy, head of Paris' Observatoire Cetelem, a market analyst group.
Statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers show that local carmakers' SUV sales doubled in the first quarter from the same period the year before, but their market share only went up by 16 percentage points, suggesting vast room for growth.
Francois Jaumain, an automobile consultant with PwC, said the popularity of the vehicles can be gauged by the fact that this year "we see no fewer than 20 compact SUVs launched on the market by Chinese manufacturers, excluding joint ventures". "This shows the preference of consumers in the large cities, and also consumers in the newer cities, which are the real source of growth for the automobile market in the country," he said.
The most popular Chinese-brand SUV in the first quarter was the JAC Refine S3, with prices starting at about 66,000 yuan ($10,650), according to trade websites, much cheaper than foreign models. The new version of Volkswagen's Tiguan, meanwhile, starts in China at just under 200,000 yuan, according to the website. AFP
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