Regulation on vehicle recall to birth soon

China is set to breed out a new regulation on vehicle recall this year, according to Liu Pingjun, Deputy Director of the General Administration of Quality Supervision (GAQS).

The information was released at the press conference of the Fourth Session of the 11th National People's Congress. "We are organizing experts to analyze potential safety risks of vehicles. And we have held several conferences to discuss the regulation." Liu said.

China has always been excluded from global automakers' recalls, which Chinese experts blame on the lack of relevant regulations. What is more, penalties to violators (automotive enterprises) are far from fear-imposing . In the US, where an enterprise is liable to as much as $18 million for not recalling defected vehicles, in China, such grounding is of around 30,000 yuan ($4,514).

"Different from US's mandatory recall system, our nation adopts the voluntary recall system. Automakers certainly won't recall cars voluntarily, if without a legal enforcement," Jia Xinguang, an experienced car analyst introduced. Besides, there is no specific department responsible for collecting quality feedback and customer information. 

Statistics showed that among the 18 million vehicles sold in China last year, 1.18 million cars were recalled, among which only 176,000 were imported cars. In contrast, carmakers in the world have recalled nearly 20 million vehicles in the US alone in 2010, while the country's total car sales volume last year was of 11.5 million units.