China Hits the Roads

As China continues to expand in every category and dimension, the Chinese people have become serious car-buyers as well. The middle class has been expanding along with China’s rapid economic growth, and now they’re buying cars, too.

Since 2001, Chinese car ownership has risen an astonishing 300% as hundreds of thousands of new drivers have roared onto streets and highways each year. This influx of vehicles has led to the rise of a new car culture — an appreciation for the dynamic freedom offered by automobiles. For families separated by dozens or even hundreds of miles of China’s sprawling provinces, this development has shrunk their world. Often, the Chinese take vacations that consist entirely of one lengthy road trip.

Of course, there are obvious downsides to this newfound sense of freedom. With more than a thousand cars being added to the roads each day (Ford sold roughly 5,000 cars and trucks a day in the U.S. last month), the infrastructure has not kept pace. Only 3 million of the 16 million people in the capital city of Beijing own a car, and already the streets are chocked to the brink with new vehicles. Emissions are another serious concern, especially in more industrialized cities, where pollution is already a significant problem.

Yet there’s no sign that car sales will slow in the future, as more residents have enough disposable income to buy cars. Some of the best-selling cars in China include familiar names like Volkswagen, Buick and Toyota, but two Chinese brands — Xiali and QQ — have also seen enormous sales.

Chinese Take to Roads Amid a Cultural Shift (The Boston Globe)