New cars not more attractive than predecessors: survey

Carmakers are racing to introduce face-lifted and new models to meet customers' evolving demands - but they are doing the job in vain in China, according to a J.D. Power study.

The annual study's results were released on Oct 9. It measures owners' emotional attachment to and level of excitement with their new vehicles in 10 aspects: exterior; setting up and starting; getting in and out; interior; performance; driving experience; safety; infotainment; driving comfort; and fuel economy.

The year's study, with 32,046 respondents surveyed in 70 major Chinese cities, shows the satisfaction score of redesigned and newly designed models reached 732 points on a 1,000-point scale, the same as owners of older models.

Face-lifts and newly designed models account for 16 percent of the 241 vehicles from 57 brands surveyed this year. Among the 10 aspects covered by the study, new models performed better only in terms of fuel economy.

"Automakers are facing an increasingly differentiated market of consumer groups and products, which means they need to take the individualized needs of customers into consideration in the early phase of product design and development," said Jeff Cai, general manager of auto product at J.D. Power China.

"However, they are failing to make more appealing vehicles due to the homogeneity of materials, features and appearances, among other things. Designing and developing attractive new models to get better market performance poses a big challenge to automakers' new product development," said Cai.

Yet the scores of models from different brands vary. Carmakers from the United States saw their score grow to 737 points in 2020 from 713 points in 2019. Japanese brands improved by 20 points to 737 points, while European brands grew 14 points to 736 points compared with 2019.

Chinese carmakers made bigger progress by scoring an additional 35 points compared with 2019, to reach 718 points. South Korean brands saw their satisfaction score fall by three points to 734.

Age plays a crucial factor. The study found that those born in the 1990s are more satisfied with new models' features, including built-in navigation (744 points), than with older ones (738 points). But owners born before 1990 take the opposite view.