The Chinese will determine what you drive in the future

In 2009, China passed the US as the world's largest car market. A direct result of this is that preferences and subjective taste of Chinese consumers will invariably exert a lot of influence on the future direction automotive design. Up until now, the design and construction of cars are very much influenced by the demands of the largest group of consumers - depending on the manufacturer, this could be North Americans, Western Europeans, or Japanese.

We are slowly starting to see the result of Chinese consumer demands influencing the direction of many recent models - and I am not referring to models from Chinese domestic manufacturers, but in relatively global cars sold across many markets, cars that you are likely to buy in the future.

So what defines the Chinese taste in automotive design? GM, the second largest foreign car brand in China after VW summarizes it as having a preference for roomy rear cabin, hi-tech features especially ICE, lots of chrome, long wheelbase and having strong road presence. It's really not that different from American preferences. Internally, GM designers call it the C-factor.

Below are some examples of Chinese market special vehicles. Some of these are only limited to superficial paint jobs while others incorporate quite significant features unique to the Chinese market.

Ferrari 599 China Special Edition


No the car does not have a case of cracked paint. The paint job is supposed to mirror traditional Chinese ceramic art. It is a one-off special made for auction. It was finally auctioned for 1.2 million Euros to an anonymous Chinese bidder. While this may be a one-off car, don't be too naive to think that Ferrari is not gauging public response for a Chinese art inspired Ferrari design theme.

Bentley Continental GT Design Series China


The gaudy colour is called Orange Flame. The late Enzo Ferrari calls the late Sir Walter Owen Bentley's cars as racing lorries. If he was alive today, he probably would have call it one very fast racing mandarin orange.

Lamborghini Murceilago LP670-4 Super Veloce China Edition


Quite a mouthful of a name. Launched in the 2010 Beijing Auto Show, only 10 of these will be made. Other than the usual numeral plaque on all limited edition cars, the lucky owner of this particular Murceilago will have his / her name engraved on the plaque.

BMW M3 Tiger Edition

250 units of these Fire Orange Metallic painted M3 coupe will be made specifically for the Chinese market, in conjunction with the BMW M3 25th anniversary and the Chinese lunar calendar Tiger year celebration.

The models mentioned above only have superficial changes made to them. The ones below however have their wheelbase stretched and tricked out with many unique features that might not even be available to European buyers. Consumers in other parts of the world might snigger or even wonder why on earth does anyone want a stretched premium C-segment model like the Audi A4, or at the end of the extreme, a Rolls Royce Phantom is already big enough, why do you need an even longer version?


A long wheel base Audi A4 will make sense the moment one experiences the gridlocked traffic of Beijing / Shanghai. In fact, even in congested cities like Bangkok, Jakarta and Manila it is not uncommon to see a chauffeur driven BMW 3-series. BMW is a little late in the capturing the whole chauffeur driven premium C-segment market but expects to catch up for lost time by 2011, when sale of a long wheel base BMW 3-series commences in China.


The demand for a stretched Phantom is the same as the logic for a stretched Hummer or even a Mercedes S600 Pullman - eccentric demands of eccentric rich people with nowhere else to put their money into. The Phantom Extended Wheelbase was created mainly to cater to the Chinese market. Rolls Royce Cars' current largest market, in America perceives the Rolls Royce Phantom EWB to be a bit too eccentric. However after seeing the success of the Phantom EWB in China, Rolls Royce Cars' said that "quite a number" of orders for a regular Phantom were converted to the Phantom EWB.

There are many other stretched long wheel base models of European models, specially made for the Chinese market.

BMW 5-series Long wheel base 


Audi A6L, with some fancy mobile office and entertainment setup. Note the longer rear cabin. 



Mercedes E-class long wheel base


Volvo S80L.


The bits below are the more significant models when discussing about influence of Chinese consumer demands on the direction of high volume global models.



The Mazda2 sedan and Ford Fiesta sedan have recently made its way to ASEAN markets. But not many realised that these are essentially Chinese engineered products with a Japanese / European badge. The Mazda2 sedan and Ford Fiesta sedan were the result of intense lobbying from Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Corp., the Chinese partner of the recently terminated Ford-Mazda alliance. In China, consumer preference is towards sedans rather than hatchbacks. Though we will never know the amount of work done by Ford-Mazda's Chinese counterparts. Don't forget that unlike our local so-called national car MANUFACTURER Perodua that uses tax payer's money to subsidize the richest car company in the world Toyota, Changan is a full fledge car manufacturer with capability of designing AND building cars from the ground up completely on their own. Both the Ford Fiesta and Mazda2 sedan were probably considered for other developing markets outside of China but there was no public announcement of such a commitment to the plan. So one can only guess that the introduction of the Mazda2 sedan and Ford Fiesta sedan was only possible once the principal holders were convinced of the business plan after seeing the success in China.

The same story goes for the Chevrolet Aveo sedan / notchback. It is a big hit in China although sales in this region have been lackluster.



The Peugeot 408 is another model that was originally planned for China, but eventually made its way into other developing markets. Despite what the name might suggest, the 408 is not a replacement to the current D-segment 407 sedan, but rather it is a sedan version of the 308 hatchback. Peugeot will rename its existing 400-series mid-size sedan model line as the 500-series; the upcoming 508 will be a replacement for the current 407, while the 607 model programme will be terminated. Though PSA's official statement was worded in a more diplomatic manner - rationalization of both the 407 and 607 into the 508. Large French cars have never achieved much sales success. In Europe, they can't shake off the fleet rental car / taxi image normally associated with large Peugeots. After 2 generations, the 600-series model line will be terminated.


It's same thing with the 207 sedan. Which is essentially a 206 sedan reskinned with 207 front fascia and updated with 207 features. The 207 sedan maybe developed with significant Chinese input, but the history of car, dating back to the 206 sedan actually started in Iran, with Peugeot's Iranian partner Iran Khodro. The 206 sedan eventually made its way to China and as expected, became a much bigger success than Peugeot can ever hope to achieve in Iran, especially with the current trade sanctions imposed by many UN, EU and USA.


The Nissan Teana maybe a Korean designed car with a Japanese badge. It is essentially a rebadged Samsung Motors SM5 / SM7. But the Teana was created with a lot of focus on Chinese consumers. In fact, Nissan chose the 2009 Beijing Auto Show for the Teana's global launch. And Nissan's CEO Carlos Ghosn went on to say "The Teana is a Chinese product...Without any doubt, the Chinese consumer now is becoming a big target for a lot of products that we are developing.”


Chinese market Ford Mondeo, note the unique to Chinese market rear fascia and LED tail lamps. European models only get conventional tail lamps but with less gaudy chrome.

Both the Chevrolet Cruze and Ford Mondeo are other similar examples. In the case of the Ford Mondeo, Ford see it necessary for the Chinese Mondeo to feature a different tail lamp cluster, chrome lining surrounds on the windows. Like the Americans, the Chinese love chrome. Chinese consumers also demand the most for their money, doesn't matter if they need the feature or not. European Mondeo owners are very satisfied with the Mondeo's conventional tail lamps with LED-like effects. Chinese consumers however will have none of that, they demand real LED tail lamps. A separate tail lamp cluster is designed specifically for the Chinese market. The Cruze is the first C-segment car to feature a 6-speed automatic transmission. Again, thank the picky Chinese consumers. Of course, there are many other factors that motivated GM-Daewoo's decision on the powertrain.

It was the Chinese (plus overseas Chinese) market that spurred the growth of a new MPV sub-segment; the "business-class luxury MPV." It is markedly different from the type of people movers or minivans that Europeans and Americans are accustomed to. Outside of Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and more recently China are the main markets for the Toyota Alphard. Though it must be added that the concept was first pioneered by the Nissan Elgrand. In China, the Alphard is a newbie there and the default choice for Chinese businessman is a Buick GL8 MPV followed by the Mercedes-Benz Vito. You can see it often in major cities and business centers of China. It was a rather bland design but GM China is resting on its laurels. GM's Chinese engineers at the GM Pan-Asia Technical Automotive Center (PATAC) have developed the Buick Business MPV Concept that was unveiled at the 2009 Shanghai Auto Show. In reality it was a thinly disguised replacement for the 2011 model year Buick GL8.




So what is the future of Chinese design theme? Citroen's Metropolis Concept, unveiled at the 2010 Shanghai World Fair, provides a hint. It was penned by Citroen's Shanghai based designers, made to appeal to Chinese consumers. It's avant-garde, it's grand, it's big, exactly the way the Chinese (and the nouveou rich in the rest of the world) likes them.



Even domestic Chinese car makers are rapidly improving their talent at a staggering pace. Below is the Geely GT Concept.


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