CAR GAZING
America playing second fiddle?
As Chinese car market ramps up, expect American cars to cater to foreign tastes
By Derek Price
For most of the 20th century, the world's automotive landscape was dominated by one country: the United States of America.
That's quickly changing, though, as the Chinese consumer rises to prominence. In 2009, for the first time in history, car sales in China eclipsed those of the United States. Even General Motors, the maker of all-American, apple-pie cars and trucks, sold more vehicles in China than it did in the U.S. last year.
It makes sense, then, that with 1.3 billion people and a ballooning economy, automakers around the globe are pinning their growth plans on satisfying the Chinese market.
They're opening up new factories, revising their car designs and coming up with new models to lure Chinese buyers into showrooms, ramping up production so much that it could be creating a "bubble" of overcapacity, the New York Times reported this weekend.
It's also clear that the Chinese car market is going to impact us Americans, too. More of our vehicles are going to be influenced by Chinese tastes as the global auto companies focus their engineers, designers and stylists on what Chinese consumers want.
Americans are going to be second fiddle for the first time ever.
While it's hard to predict what's going to happen to cars even in the most stable of times – much less today's time of shaky economies, shifting paradigms and Middle Eastern dictatorships crumbling – there are a few trends in Chinese cars that are already changing how we Americans are driving.
Here's a look at four of them:
ROOMY BACK SEATS
One of the biggest trends in China is the concept of a chauffeur-driven limousine. Successful Chinese businesspeople want cars with spacious back seats that offer plenty of leg room, and the manufacturers are happy to oblige.
In particular, luxury brands are offering more long-wheelbase versions of their flagship cars. Jaguar, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz and BMW all offer extended-length models designed around the executives who are being driven, not necessarily driving.
What was once a special feature sold to heads of state and the uber-powerful is now trickling down to the everyday Grandma and Grandpa luxury buyers here in America.
If this trend continues, especially at the top end of the market, Americans can expect more room for their back-seat passengers to stretch out. Cars will become less about the cockpit up front and more about the comfortable cocoon in back.
FLASHIER STYLING
A few years ago, Chinese cars sold mainly in dull shades of black, gray and neutral colors that seemed fitting for a communist country.
Think of East Germany on wheels.
Today, though, more Chinese buyers are trying to make themselves stand apart with flashier, more noticeable and colorful cars. Just like in America, they're becoming status symbols designed to draw attention and make a statement as much as they are about mere transportation.
Looking forward, it's reasonable to expect cars influenced by China to have bolder, more unusual designs. You can compare it to what happened in America in the 1950s when colorful bodies, custom shapes and outlandish design features – such as exaggerated tail fins – became popular following World War II.
MORE ELECTRIC CARS
Another parallel to the American car industry is the pollution that is produced when car sales skyrocket.
Chinese cities aren't known for having the cleanest air right now, and it's only going to get worse as hundreds of millions of people hit the roads. Their pollution problems could be far more intense that what America dealt with in the 1970s and '80s.
The Chinese government's answer is to subsidize the sale of electric and hybrid vehicles. They're even building a network of charging stations in five of their biggest cities, according to Reuters, which means the Chinese government thinks electricity is part of the long-term pollution solution.
China also has more lithium available than most countries, which should help it control domestic prices of batteries. And with tight government control over the economy, the Chinese have more ways of pushing people toward electric vehicles that don't have tailpipe emissions.
Nissan, General Motors, Toyota and other companies are already developing electric cars presumably to help the environment. But it sure doesn't hurt that it's what the Chinese government wants, too.
AFFORDABLE URBAN CARS
Finally, it's important to remember that China is still an emerging market. Luxury cars are selling well as China's upper and middle classes grow, but most of the growth potential is actually in the country's masses of poor residents who would love a car but can't afford one yet.
That's why small, low-cost, urban-friendly vehicles are going to be important in the future. Ford unveiled one possibility with its Start concept that debuted at the Beijing Motor Show last year.
While the Start was simply a design study with no plans for production, the ideas it embodies are likely to become reality. Its small 1.0-liter engine, city-friendly layout, and easy-to-manufacture design are all going to be important as car makers sell to an ever growing mass of buyers.
Everything built for the Chinese market won't come to America, and much of it will be modified to sell better here. But, just like how American cars influenced transportation in far-flung corners of the globe, we can expect the same thing to happen in the upcoming century as China replaces the United States as the world's leading car market.
It will be a fun ride to watch.
(Derek Price is a newspaper editor and freelance writer living in Texas.)
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