China the biggest car producer in the world, Automotive companies are investing billions of dollars in the Chinese economy, to get access to low cost manufacturing and an exponentially growing automotive market. As we have witnessed the heavy traffic in Beijing; they have been trying to implement rules and regulations to decrease traffic and the growth of the car population. For example to get a license plate it is a lottery process and they will issue only certain amount of plates each year, another rule; there is a certain day in the week which cars with a certain plate number is prohibited to be driven. Not only in Beijing other cities as well are increasing prices to get a license plate for new cars so less people buy cars. With that being said there is more than 200 million cars registered in China and expected to reach 300 million within the next 10 years. In 2014 there was 24 million cars produced in China which 20 Million of that is sold in China.
An impressive unique fact about China; that 90% of the cars in the streets of China are manufactured locally. Regardless of the brand almost every Automotive brand in the world manufacture in China. That is a unique fact that boost their economy. They have attracted all these companies not only because of the efficient industrial system and cheap labor they have also an entry one of the biggest markets in the world.
The streets are the most diverse place in China, I have seen all kinds of cars from British Rolls Royce and Bentleys, Italian Maserati, German Porsche BMW Audi and Mercedes, Japanese Toyota and Honda, USA Ford and Jeep, California Tesla which was not expected. Any multinational company who wants to enter the Chinese market have to form a joint venture with a local automotive company which are state owned.
Even though there is a strong presence from pioneer automotive companies; that did not stop local Chinese companies to make their own cars and compete, even though they came to the market late, they have been competing aggressively in the local and international market with their low pricing model. I find this really impressive and I believe it is one of the secrets to their tremendous economic growth; they are not satisfied with just attracting foreign companies to manufacture locally, they learn and benefit from them to make their own products and compete with them. Some of the Chinese cars that I saw not only in China internationally as well Geely, Cherry, and BYD. They are known by having high features and low prices.
I have travelled around the world and been to many different cities, I can easily say Beijing has the most diverse streets. In the same street you can see Luxury european cars, Chinese cars, and rickshaw bicycles.