Since this year, my country's automobile market has continued to recover and be positive. During the May Day holiday, the automobile consumption boom was surging, showing strong resilience and growth potential, becoming an important force in driving consumption and stabilizing the economy.

Customer flow has seen a significant increase

At present, central and local policies have been put in place at the same time, and dealers have also introduced a series of measures to promote the circulation of used cars and the sales of new cars. Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the Joint Branch of Passenger Car Market Information of the China Automobile Dealers Association, said that starting from March, my country's auto market began to strengthen. During the May Day holiday, the automobile consumer market ushered in a peak in passenger flow.

On May 1, there were endless consumers looking at cars in the Huawei flagship store in Wangfujing, Beijing. Mr. Wang, who lives in Dongcheng District, Beijing, came to see the car with his family. He took the driver's seat of a car and checked it carefully, sighing, "This car is really good."

The Huanyao Shengshi BYD Auto Dynasty store located in Fengtai, Beijing is also very popular. "The discount on car purchases is very high now." Liu Xiuzhan, executive general manager of Huanyao Group, told reporters that taking BYD Han EV intelligent assisted driving version as an example, the "old-for-new" subsidy is up to 15,000 yuan, the government subsidy is up to 20,000 yuan, and the car companies' "May Day" activities discount is 10,000 yuan.

The person in charge of Fongbao Auto Beijing Xinmin Hengxinda 4S store told reporters that before the May Day holiday, the store’s customer flow has begun to increase significantly. As consumers' demand for car viewing and buying cars increases during holidays, coupled with the recent popularity of brand new cars and promotional activities, the flow of customers in the store has increased by about 30% year-on-year, especially the number of family car purchases has increased significantly. The person in charge said that in order to cope with the peak of passenger flow, the store has optimized the reception process in advance and extended its business hours.

Multiple positive factors drive consumption

On May 1, many car companies successively announced sales and delivery data in April, further confirming the recovery trend of my country's automobile market, among which the new energy vehicle sector is still the main force in growth.

Political preferential policies are an important driving force for driving automobile consumption. Data from the Ministry of Commerce shows that as of 24:00 on April 24, the number of old-for-new cars nationwide has reached 2.705 million, effectively driving the growth of automobile consumption and overall social consumer goods retail. According to the person in charge of Dongchedi, the "National Automobile-For-New Intelligent Service Platform" developed by Dongchedi has been launched recently, providing centralized inquiry and collection services for government automobile consumption subsidies such as car scrapping, replacement and update, and new car consumption coupons, covering 31 provinces; at the same time, it integrates government subsidies, car company subsidies, and platform subsidies to facilitate consumers to receive subsidies and maximize the enjoyment of car purchase discounts.

From the central government to the local government, a series of policies to boost consumption have been implemented one after another, and it is clear that the old-for-new and green intelligent upgrades will be used as the starting point to activate new momentum in the automobile consumption market. During the "May 5 Shopping Festival", Shanghai Pudong New District launched a new round of automobile consumption promotion activities. Starting from May 1, consumers will purchase new fuel passenger cars or new energy passenger cars with National VI b emission standards in Pudong New Area, and obtain a unified motor vehicle sales invoice issued by the automobile sales agency in Pudong New Area, and enjoy a 3,000 yuan purchase subsidy for each vehicle. The event has a total of 30,000 places and is distributed on the "first come first served" principle.

Wu Songquan, senior chief expert of China Automobile Center and chief engineer of China Automobile Strategy and Policy Research Center, said that at the policy guidance level, the old-for-new policy has reduced the cost of consumers' car replacement, stimulated potential consumer demand, and injected momentum into the automobile market. New energy vehicle technological innovation and infrastructure construction are moving forward together, product performance and quality are constantly improving, prices are constantly declining, and "mileage anxiety" has been effectively alleviated, attracting more and more consumers' attention. In addition, 2025 is the last year for new energy vehicles to be exempted from purchase tax (the collection will be halved from 2026 to 2027), which will drive the sales of new energy vehicles to continue to rise.

Consumption upgrade has spawned new trends

In the context of the continuous upgrading of users' demand for comfort, entertainment, multi-function, etc., better cater to the transformation of user needs has become an important strategy for differentiated competition among car companies.

Taking the Wenjie M8 as an example, it is equipped with an integrated global screen, the co-pilot is equipped with an exclusive independent theater, and supports independent Bluetooth channels, which does not interfere with each other, and provides exclusive theaters in the rear row; the BYD Han EV intelligent assisted driving version is equipped with a 5G smart cockpit, and is equipped with multi-color ambient lights, dual-zone automatic air conditioning and other functions, which can meet the diverse needs of consumers.

Wu Songquan said that cars are transforming from vehicles to large mobile smart terminals and digital spaces. The combination of intelligent networking functions such as driving assistance and smart cockpits has adapted to consumers' needs for vehicle safety, convenience, comfort and personalization. It has become a product selling point that car companies focus on creating and a key consideration for consumers when purchasing cars.

Based on the advance layout of new energy and intelligent networking technology, the recognition of domestic independent brand cars has been significantly improved. A survey showed that 74.58% of respondents said that their preferred independent brands were selected for buying cars. The core motivation for consumers to choose domestic cars has also shifted from "low price" to "high value", and 33.15% of respondents listed "rich configuration and strong sense of technology" as the primary factor in car purchase.

Cui Dongshu believes that in the application of new smart cockpit technologies, my country's independent car companies have performed well, especially in intelligent assisted driving. Independent car companies have achieved rapid development, which has brought huge driving force to the development of my country's automobile industry.