Car buyers in China more 'decisive' than before, says survey

Car buyers in China need less time than before when they make decisions in the showrooms, according to a JD Power study released on Thursday.

The study shows that 73 percent of the polled car buyers already had a specific model or at least a specific brand in their mind before visiting the brick-and-mortar stores, up 5.3 percentage points year-on-year.

The study was based on responses from 25,260 vehicle owners in 81 major cities who purchased their new vehicle between June 2022 and March 2023.

"The current Chinese auto market is full of uncertainties," said Ann Xie, digital retail consulting practice at JD Power China. "However, as shoppers have become more decisive in the purchase process, how to enter their favorite list in advance has become the key focus of automakers."

She said the trend has demonstrated the need for salespeople to change their strategies, adding that they no longer need to talk about the selling points of the models.

The study also examined customer satisfaction at dealerships across the country.

It found that the score of sales satisfaction was 765 on a 1,000-point scale in the premium vehicle segment, 13 points higher than the volume vehicle segment.

Another finding was that new energy vehicle buyers were more satisfied than gasoline vehicle buyers. Their score of satisfaction stood at 738 and 715 respectively.

Gasoline vehicle salespeople were less familiar with their products than their NEV colleagues, and they were less enthusiastic when it came to inviting potential buyers for test drives, according to the study.