The second-hand car market ushered in a "highlight" moment
Our reporter Liu Jin
"my country's second-hand car transaction volume may exceed 16 million this year, and the growth rate is expected to reach 15%." Recently, Luo Lei, deputy secretary general of the China Automobile Dealers Association, made bold predictions on the domestic second-hand car market at the 2021 China Used Car Conference .
The reason why Luo Lei is so optimistic about the second-hand car market is closely related to the continuous increase in the volume of second-hand car transactions under the dual benefits of policies and the market this year.
The market goes out of the "big Yang line"
After the downturn in 2020, the domestic used car market is picking up rapidly.
According to data released by the China Automobile Dealers Association, in the first half of 2021, a total of 8.4342 million second-hand cars were traded nationwide, a year-on-year increase of 52.89%. Compared with the sales of 12.891 million new cars, there is still a gap, but the growth rate of second-hand cars is higher than that of new cars. Out of nearly 27 percentage points.
Even in the off-season of auto industry sales in June, the transaction volume of used cars still increased by 4.43% month-on-month.
At a press conference on business work and operations in the first half of the year, Zhu Xiaoliang, director of the Department of Market Operations and Consumption Promotion of the Ministry of Commerce, said that as various policies and measures are effective, the overall automobile market has maintained a stable and positive development trend.
In the first half of the year, all major indicators have exceeded the levels before the epidemic.
Specifically, the automotive aftermarket is more active.
The ratio between used cars and new car sales has risen to 0.65:1.
Compared with the data of 3.9% decline in the used car market as a whole in 2020, it is an indisputable fact that the popularity of used cars is soaring.
In this regard, industry experts gave three explanations:
The first is the impact of chip shortages.
Similar to the performance of foreign markets over the same period, the shortage of chips has caused a decline in the supply of new cars, which has caused the car business to rapidly become a seller’s market, driving many consumers to buy second-hand cars.
The second is favorable policies.
Beginning in May last year, the value-added tax for used cars was reduced from 2% to 0.5%, which directly reduced the tax cost of dealers operating second-hand car business.
At the same time, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Public Security, and the State Administration of Taxation have successively introduced policies to abolish the restricted movement of second-hand cars and simplify the transaction process of second-hand cars. The biggest "blocking point" in the circulation of second-hand cars has been cleared, further releasing the consumption potential of second-hand cars.
The third is the entry of emerging entities.
The domestic used car market has been dominated by small and micro car dealers for a long time. Under the guidance of tax reduction and other policies, more and more merchants have entered this industry.
According to the data from Tianyan Check, there are over 600,000 car dealers in my country that include second-hand cars in their business scope, and 22% of the second-hand car-related companies that are in business, surviving, moving in, or moving out have been established within one year. , More than half of the related companies were established between 1 to 5 years.
Luo Lei believes that the domestic second-hand car industry is ushering in an unprecedented bright moment.
He predicts that my country's second-hand car sales in 2023 will strive to exceed 30 million; in 2025, the second-hand car transaction volume will be basically the same as the new car sales.
Online trading trend is obvious
Different from the past ups and downs, the new round of recovery in the used car market has two distinct characteristics.
One is the rejuvenation of second-hand car consumption.
Used cars have not been popular with young people for a long time.
Today, this situation has changed drastically.
BMW once disclosed in a data in 2021: Young people have long been the main consumer group of officially certified second-hand cars by BMW, and users aged 20 to 34 have reached 46%.
The second is the digitization of used car transactions.
The penetration rate of domestic second-hand car e-commerce companies has continued to increase from about 7% in 2016 to about 21% in 2021, and the online trend is significant.
The number of APP monthly active users (MAU) has been ranked first in the industry for many years. It is thanks to the continuous deep cultivation of the Internet platform, it has realized the big data standard pricing of non-standard products in the used car field and the nationwide Supply and demand matching and 7-day unreasonable after-sales guarantee have gradually built up the infrastructure of China's auto trading and service online e-commerce.
Behind all kinds of new phenomena, it indicates that the domestic second-hand car industry is entering a new era, and e-commerce platforms are becoming the protagonist of the market.
Li Bing, an expert from the China Automobile Dealers Association, believes that in terms of self-driving factors, the future development of the used car industry is aimed at scale, branding, and digitalization.
Digitization will definitely bring more development space and stronger profitability to enterprises, but it also requires more investment. Only with a certain scale and brand can it be able to promote digitization.
Transition to a service provider
With both consumer groups and consumption models in the domestic second-hand car market in an iterative situation, a series of chain reactions are taking place.
Such as the transformation of transactions to services.
In the traditional used car buying and selling chain, car dealers’ profits mainly come from the price difference, but the example of BMW’s official used car certification reveals a new trend: the prosperity of the used car market requires a three-dimensional business model, which extends from the transaction to the The subsequent service links have changed from simple car sales to service sales, including evaluation services, maintenance services, and financial services for second-hand cars.
Another example is the standardization of the certification system.
At the second-hand car conference, the China Automobile Dealers Association first designated third-party evaluation agencies such as 268V as the "industry" certification authority. The evaluation and evaluation of second-hand cars had unified technical specifications, which filled the evaluation standards for second-hand cars to a certain extent. And the gap in the cognitive system.
The emergence of standards and certification systems is precisely the prerequisite for the rapid growth of the industry. Especially for the used car industry, certification can not only increase the value retention rate of vehicles, but also further eliminate the psychological burden of consumers, which is equivalent to the role of lubricants.
According to Xiao Zhengsan, vice chairman and secretary-general of the China Automobile Dealers Association, the introduction of the new policy will accelerate the formation of a unified national market for second-hand cars.
He said, “With independent, professional and standardized second-hand car dealerships as the main body, second-hand car transaction and circulation are efficient and convenient, orderly competition and mutual promotion characterized by diversified business entities and diversified business models. The formation of a new market structure will accelerate.”
The upcoming "turbulent period" in the used car market may not be bad news.
Compared with a scattered and disorderly niche market, the integration and restructuring of the industry will provide unprecedented new opportunities for participants in the industry chain.