"Although the epidemic has greatly reduced the international demand for automobiles, the export of self-owned brands still shows some encouraging highlights, such as the increase in unit price of products, the further increase in the proportion of export volume in the total brand sales, and the transfer of export market from developing countries to developed markets." Gao Yang, deputy director of the Foreign trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce, said at the China 2020 Automotive Forum, which was held from August 13 to 15.

           Gao Yang, Deputy Director of foreign Trade Department, Ministry of             Commerce 

        The coVID-19 outbreak, which struck early this year, has posed a major challenge to China's declining auto market. However, with the effective control of the epidemic, China's auto market has taken the lead in the global recovery, thus ushering in new opportunities for China's auto industry, which is even expected to change the global auto industry pattern.

      According to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, China's auto production and sales have registered positive year-on-year growth for four consecutive months since bottoming out in March, forming a "V-shaped" rebound trend. From January to July, China's accumulative automobile production and sales volume were 12.314 million and 12.365 million, down 11.8% and 12.7% year on year, with the decline narrowing continuously.

      By contrast, Europe and the United States car market is clearly not optimistic. "About 2.4 million cars have been cut in production in Europe and 1.1 million jobs have been directly affected by the outbreak," said David Dailin, China general representative of the Association of European Industries. The European passenger car market saw an unprecedented four consecutive declines in the first half of the year and is expected to contract by about 25 per cent for the whole of 2020. "Affected by the coVID-19 outbreak, Japan's sales in April and May fell by 29 percent and 45 percent year on year respectively," said Tadanobu Matsushima, chief representative of JAMA's Beijing office. "In April, production at home and abroad fell by 47 per cent and 68 per cent respectively. The situation is grim."

       Anning Chen, President of Ford China, introduced the performance of the differentiation of Chinese and foreign auto markets from the perspective of enterprises. "Among the hundreds of Ford factories in the world, the factory in China has the best recovery; The pace of recovery in North America has been less orderly than in China, and there has been a lack of co-ordination among European countries."

Fu Bingfeng, Executive Vice President and secretary General of China Association of Automobile Manufacturers and President of world Automobile Organization

       "In 2009, the global financial crisis propelled China's auto market to become the world's largest by sales; By the first half of this year, Car ownership in China had reached 270m, on a par with that in the US, with another 10m on track for steady growth in the second half. In the process of the formation of China's huge market, it has created a fully competitive stage for global automobile enterprises. Now, the Chinese auto market is more likely to lead the global auto consumption trend." According to Fu Bingfeng, executive vice President and secretary general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers and chairman of the World Automobile Organization (OICA), The Chinese auto industry is fully capable of turning a crisis into an opportunity.

      In terms of manufacturing, he believes that After more than 40 years of development, China's automobile industry has a mature vehicle manufacturing technology. At the same time, policy assistance will also contribute to the healthy development of China's automobile industry. For example, seven strategic emerging industries were identified by the State Council in 2010, among which six are strongly related to automobiles. Another example is the Negative List for Foreign Investment released in 2018, which further demonstrates that China's auto industry has entered a period of high-level opening-up and development. In addition, the century-old global auto industry is facing new changes such as electrification and interconnection, which also gives Chinese cars the opportunity to stand at the same starting line or even take the lead with the traditional strong players.

         Christoph Wolff, Executive Board member of the World Economic Forum            and global director of Shaping The Future of Transport

        Christoph Wolff, executive Board member of the World Economic Forum and global director of Shaping The Future of Transport, agrees. "The global new car market is expected to decline by around 20% this year, but The Chinese auto market, which accounts for 30% of the global market share, has taken the lead in achieving a 'V' shaped rebound, with implications for the global market. At present, the number of 1,000 cars in China is only 173. It is expected to reach 186 by the end of this year, but it is still far below the average level of developed countries, so the potential is still huge."

       "Moreover, China is leading the world in intelligent, networked, electric and Shared development of the automotive industry; China has the world's largest new energy vehicle market, accounting for more than 50% of global sales. China has the largest ride-sharing market, with nearly 30 million daily orders. China also has the leading information and communication technology and intelligent vehicle ecosystem; Together with China's leadership in new infrastructure, there will be greater opportunities for China to develop new energy vehicles and smart internet-connected vehicles in the future, which will undoubtedly boost the global position of Chinese cars." Christoph Wolff goes further.