The Commercial Vehicle Industry in China – Scania being part of it

Abstract

Since 2007 China is the country with the largest manufacturing of automobiles in the world and since 2010 it is also the country with the largest manufacturing of passenger cars. For heavy duty-trucks the total production is almost half of the world’s total production. This is quite remarkable since the Chinese automobile industry was totally underdeveloped when China embarked on the Open Door policy back in 1979. Today Chinese brands have even become a common sight at international auto shows and today the auto shows in Beijing and Shanghai count among the most important auto shows in the world.

With such a huge market and with emerging competitors the situation poses the question to all foreign automobile manufacturers – how to successfully enter the Chinese market? Privately owned car are now very common, although the penetration rate is still only 5 %. The potential is enormous, but there is also a growing concern that with the peak oil looming closer the traditional car with an internal combustion engine will have to be replaced by other forms of propulsion systems.

In the 12^th 5-year plan China has therefore set the ambition level very high and aim at being a world leader in the development of e-vehicles and to be a leader in the setting of global standards for e-vehicles and the surrounding infrastructure.

How shall one act as a foreign manufacturer in this quickly growing and fast changing landscape? We shall discuss this issue mainly from a perspective of commercial vehicles, but we will also describe some avenues chosen by passenger car brands.