Automobiles are ready to be exported from the Taicang Port, East China’s Jiangsu Province, on October 31, 2022. Cars handled by the port from January to September reached 218,700, of which 60,700 were exported. The car throughput in September reached 33,700, with 22,500 being exported, hitting a record high. Photo: cnsphoto.

Recently, car brands in Hubei province, a major automobile production base in Central China, launched what experts deemed as the strongest car-promotion season in history. The campaign is expected to have a nationwide spill-over effect to drive up car purchases in the first quarter and further revive the nation’s consumption potential.

Consumers purchasing certain car brands under Dongfeng Motor Group, a leading automobile manufacturer headquartered in Hubei Province, can enjoy up to 90,000 yuan ($12,926) in price cuts with subsidies offered by local governments and car enterprises, according to Paper.cn. 

The price cuts extended to 58 types of cars of seven car brands under Dongfeng Motor Group. The most heavily subsidized model is Dongfeng Citroen C6. While the official guide price of the model is 216,800 yuan, consumers can enjoy a comprehensive subsidy of 90,000 yuan, which is jointly borne by the manufacturer and the government.

Under these unprecedented comprehensive subsidies, consumers have been pouring into car 4S stores.

“Dongfeng Citroens are sold out in our store,” a salesperson of a Dongfeng 4S store in Hubei told the Global Times on Thursday. “The number of customers entering the store to consult and placing orders has tripled in recent days.” 

The scale of 90,000 yuan subsidies for car purchases is unprecedented and shows Hubei’s determination to stabilize and promote automobile consumption, Cui Dongshu, secretary general of China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), told the Global Times on Thursday. 

The promotion will have an exemplary role and radiate to the surrounding areas in a short period of time, forming a spill-over effect on the surrounding areas, Cui said.

"Other provinces are likely to follow suit. The introduction of car subsidies will give strong support to stablilize the car market in the first quarter,” Cui said.

Following Dongfeng, other car manufacturers have also joined the price war and a big car sale is going on all over the country.

According to incomplete statistics of Red Star Capital Ventures, at least 30 automobile brands have participated in the price war so far, with the highest discount of more than 100,000 yuan.

Northeast China's Jilin Province, for example, said consumers who buy cars under FAW Group's brands in the province can get subsidies of up to 37,000 yuan.

Beijing and Shanghai have also announced extensions of subsidies for the purchase of new-energy vehicles. 

Boosting car consumption coincides with the country's push to boost commodity consumption, Zhang Xiang, visiting professor with the Engineering Department of Huanghe Science and Technology University, told the Global Times on Thursday.

“The car consumption will be an important driver to revive consumption this year,” Zhang said.
 
China will expand domestic demand this year, according to the Government Work Report submitted Sunday to the national legislature for deliberation.

Priority will be given to the recovery and expansion of consumption, and incomes of urban and rural residents will be boosted through multiple channels, said the report.