Cars and the Coming Car Culture in China

Filed in archive News on July 22, 2009

Cars are giving a boost to the Chnese economy. Is that good? Opinions vary...

While U.S. car sales are down so much that GM and Chrysler have both been through Chapter 11, China's car sales for June of this year are up 48% over last year. That's not a typo. Stan Abrams at China Hearsay reflects on the issue a little and points out that China is only now developing a car culture, and that most people don't really need a car. They just want one. It's a status symbol.

It reminds me of my time in Singapore. That city was flooded with taxis, had all the buses you could wish for, had a nice new metro railway - and yet people were willing to pay thousands of dollars each year just to hold a drivers license with their name on it, pay a 100% sales tax on cars, pay thousands of dollars a year in "road taxes" so they could drive the car they'd bought, etc.

China's auto industry can be seen as part of modernization. It can be seen in a political context (since owning a car gives individuals greater mobility and personal independence). And it can definitely be seen in an economic context. The question is one of how quickly the auto industry there will turn green, and how soon the roads in Guangzhou and Xi'an will be too clogged with traffic to drive on...


© baekken