China gov’t questions BYD, Dongfeng over ‘0 miles pre-reg’ practice to boost sales – GWM raised issue

China gov’t questions BYD, Dongfeng over ‘0 miles pre-reg’ practice to boost sales – GWM raised issue

Here’s something interesting from the Chinese domestic market. The country’s commerce ministry will meet auto industry bodies and carmakers including BYD and Dongfeng to discuss the increasing practice of selling ‘used cars’ that are actually brand new and have not been driven before.

The meeting apparently happened yesterday, according to a Reuters source speaking on condition of anonymity as details of the meeting were confidential.

Sounds familiar? It’s a common practice for OEMs to sell ‘pre-registered’ cars in Malaysia, some with just delivery miles on the clock. These virtually brand new cars have already been registered with number plates, hence the ‘pre-reg’ term, and are sold with attractive discounts. It’s done to boost new car sales figures and/or to meet sales targets. Buyers benefit, and the only drawback is not being able to choose your own number plate.

China gov’t questions BYD, Dongfeng over ‘0 miles pre-reg’ practice to boost sales – GWM raised issue

Looks like it isn’t a common practice in China though. The issue was raised by Great Wall Motor chairman Wei Jianjun in an interview with Sina Finance last week. He said that as a result of the Chinese auto industry’s years-long price war, OEMs are resorting to the pre-reg practice to move metal. Wei said that at least 3,000 to 4,000 vendors on Chinese used car platforms were selling such cars.

Parties in the talks include the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), China Automobile Dealers Association (CADA) as well as some used car trading platforms, the source to Reuters. The commerce ministry, CADA, BYD and Dongfeng did not did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while GWM and CAAM declined.

Competition is tight in China, and if not for Malaysia driving on the different side of the road, many of these unsold cars meant for the domestic market would be piling up at our ports, we can imagine. Anyway, have you ever profited from a sweet pre-reg deal or regretted not snapping one up?

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Danny Tan

Danny Tan loves driving as much as he loves a certain herbal meat soup, and sweet engine music as much as drum beats. He has been in the auto industry since 2006, previously filling the pages of two motoring magazines before joining this website. Enjoys detailing the experience more than the technical details.

 

Comments

  • Vendee on May 28, 2025 at 4:50 pm

    I hear that for buyers at China, more than 3 months = stockpile cars, and buyer prefer more discount.

    So if the Manufacturer are pushing stockpiled car to used car platform for a discounted price, it does sound matching to the market perception and behaviour.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 0
  • Penheeee on May 28, 2025 at 5:16 pm

    Byd learn from slime darbi hahahahha

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0
  • Ben Yap on May 28, 2025 at 5:37 pm

    i recently bought a brand new BMW G20 using this method. the brand new car is pre-reg and i enjoy a handsome discount. i’m all for it!!!

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 14 Thumb down 3
    • Persatuan Ostronesian Rumpun Kebangsaan on May 29, 2025 at 9:00 am

      Fully agreed. Motherland also learns from Malaizia.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 7 Thumb down 0
    • how much cheaper bro?
      just go to any showroom and ask for pre-reg unit?

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • Very Useful in Malaysia on May 28, 2025 at 7:02 pm

    With rules inforce for Minimum RM100 K for non local EV brands, these sales tactics helps to BREAKDOWN/invade malaysia markets ubi kayu RM100K wall.

    Thanks to smart innovative thinking of Motherland.
    CHINA Namba 1

    Invasion of large scale CHINA EV comming Soon

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 7 Thumb down 11
  • Sabri on May 28, 2025 at 7:36 pm

    Neta and dongfeng in malaysia also

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 9 Thumb down 0
  • FireAce on May 29, 2025 at 9:10 am

    Sellers get to move their stocks and buyers get cheaper cars, both benefited. Don’t see any problem with this.

    As for the rhetorical arguments of “Invasion of China EV”, who are you trying to kid? Proton e-Mas 7 is a rebadged Geely Galaxy E5, which is also a China EV.

    The rules of minimum RM100k EV price is another joke. It original intention is to allow local automobile industry to migrate into supply chain of producing higher tech EV cars but up until today, I didn’t hear any news that indicate we are moving towards that direction.

    The rich buy EV, pay no tax. The rest of population buy normal car, pay huge tax, get burdened for next 9 years on car loan.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 12 Thumb down 2
    • Sabri on May 29, 2025 at 6:11 pm

      you want to know why? because the local automobile parts industry are just made of lazy flers who import in cheap parts from china then rebadge and then sell to car assemblers as “local parts” with a huge markup for ckd while making a truckload of wealth out of nothing

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 6 Thumb down 1
 

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