Not every sales stories from China is a rosy one. Private Chinese automaker BYD, which is partly owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, is seeing sales slump. After it almost doubled in 2009, BYD sales rose by just 17% in 2010, way behind the 32% industry average. For the first half of 2011, sales have dropped 20% year-on-year to 242,419 units, according to JD Power.
In the midst of this, sales Vice President Xia Zhibing has resigned. Xia’s departure is officially listed as for “personal reasons” in the company statement, but industry observers and analysts believe the real cause behind his resignation is the company’s sharp sales decline this year. Xia, 37, has been the sales chief since 2005.
Analysts point out that the government’s scrapping of tax incentives for small cars has resulted in a drop in demand for models from mass-market brands this year. However, BYD sales are falling faster than the industry at large. Also blamed is BYD’s aggressive dealership network expansion over the past two years. It backfired in 2010 when more than 20% of its dealerships closed, according to local media.
Or could it be BYD’s model lineup itself? The company has plenty of models that are “inspired” by other marques – Estima, Honda City, Merc SL, Megane CC, Altis, Optra 5, you name it. Could it be that the average Chinese is no longer digging “imitation” products when it comes to cars?
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
Wow. That M6 got a serious case of Estima Previa!
How much is the M6? Price of Exora?
sales drop also more than proton…how unfair….at least proton isn’t just copying…
I bet some ppl will just buy this over estima here in Malaysia and say ‘i buy it coz it’s value for money’,’those who buy Toyota are idiots and loser,I’ll buy this anytime’,’wow beware Japanese,the Chinese are coming’,’i bought this last week,good quality and great engine….bought it not because I’m poor but I see the character in this car’,bla bla bla etcs….
Free market in communist country! That is the most sound corporate responsiblity by resign if fail to perform up to expectation. The cn gov do not need to extend craptriotic NAP like policy to protect non-performing company! That is as simple as free economy.
Expatriate VN,
Hey what FREE maket economy? Citibank bail out? Even the famous umbrella logo has been sold to pare down debt! I bet u don’t know that! Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae? GM and the big three? They are all bail outs.
You make noise about free market economy because you embrace the western ideology, and when they do an about turn, you say its ok, they know what they are doing. But what we do is wrong on all accounts hmm…still holding colonialist mentality.
Don’t forget this week’s special ECB will probaby bail out all of Spain and Portugal to mitigate the financial mess. But that isn’t wrong, you should just let them default and die.
So what makes this ok in contrast to a higher car import tax? Do explain why this is all right with your expatriate mind. I’m sure the public deserves to know. Maybe you should move to Greece or Spain, I’m sure they will love your idea of letting banks and financial instutions and other business interest die. You will be loved to death. :)
TFazuin, aiya dude, you quote me out of context!
My point of view for free market is that I am neither against bail out for US ailing companies nor support austerity measure like the Greece. These were part of Keynesian Approach in tackling economic woes – main keyword is government intervention in time of economic crisis by pump in monies to save vital economic activities with national interest.
The main point of contentions are we do not need to implement tariff and non-tariff protective market (i.e. also against WTO rules) that detrimental to long term healthy growth of the industry at large, and at the expense of consumer’s pocket.
In our automotive industry, it is good to provide incentive and back-up to make Proton and Perodua to be truly competitive in the world market (i.e. not create crap jaguh kampong). The sad true case of our automotive industry, inter-alia: –
1) Create Kleptocracy system like AP king, tariff and non-tariff measures, crony’s vendors, etc.
2) Build crap unsafe small cars that non-beneficial to consumers at large in term of getting good quality car at a free market price like Langkawi.
3) A system of embrace “capitalist richness” when enterprise make profits – the $$$$ will go into PRIVATE pocket of cronies, laughing all the way to the bank to fill in his kitty.
4) A system of embrace “socialist welfare” when enterprise make losses – the cronies will ask GOVERNMENT to absorb and take over (i.e. read use tax payers monies) when the enterprise make huge losses $$$$$$.
I am not an economist but save to say the above basic explanation is good enough to explain the major differences in reference to “Keynesian Approach” in free market vis-à-vis “Kleptocracy Control Fraud” in protective market! US and EU practice the FORMER (of course there are certain shortcoming as well), and our beloved Dumbass Bodohland cronies like the LATER very much, simply because they can enrich themselves to enjoy 4-wives lifestyle and more than enough to feed their 7 generation.
are you VietNamese?
Ya correct, expatriate from .vn
2 main reason:
1. Quality; low Q product will be dumped by consumer sooner or later….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Kx28X8M_1k
2. Integrity; copying and proudly admit is just no sense of respect….
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/NussbaumOnDesign/archives/2010/02/the_truth_behind_chinas_byd_car_company–and_warren_buffets_investment.html
They should focus on their EV and make’em usable/practical. Drop all their copied cars.
Its a good start to build a good company image.
Control C and then, Control V…..DONE….=)
Ermmm… Making all the chinese feel low class because of this brand, should be sued and close the company, wonder why still no one sue them for copying a lot of cars like c-class, harrier, estima.
what is the durabillity of this EV?? hopefully won’t come to Malaysia…..They can come out with any model by copy n paste. cheap to buy expensive to maintain…after few year pokai then sell to kedai besi buruk…ha ha .