Auto industry is forging a way forward as China recovers

SHANGHAI — An auto show held outdoors with cars emblazoned with hefty discounts. Shoppers with face masks. A sales, marketing and service apparatus that has shifted decidedly to all-digital.

China's auto industry, the first to encounter the coronavirus outbreak, is coming back, but in fits and starts, with a few green shoots to show.

Automakers have resumed output, and dealerships have reopened across the country. In April, new-vehicle sales rose for the first time in nearly two years, climbing 4.4 percent after plunging 45 percent in the first quarter.

But the industry is changing with the times, prompting new strategies and tactics.

With China's main auto show postponed until September from its original April dates, SAIC Motor Corp. staged its own event May 1-10 at the ornate downtown Shanghai Exhibition Center.

The most striking sight was not the new cars and crossovers displayed by the state-owned automaker and its partners General Motors and Volkswagen Group, but the face masks that everybody wore.

Also, the event was not held inside the halls of a convention hub, but in the palatial courtyard.

It was intended to "reopen the beautiful life for city folks who have been confined at home in the past three months," SAIC Chairman Chen Hong said during the April 30 opening ceremony.

Patrons enjoyed not only the elaborate setting with 40-plus vehicles surrounding a reflecting pool: To attract buyers, SAIC offered a 45 percent discount on some models.

In contrast to SAIC's grand show, most automakers are opting to connect with Chinese customers through online channels.

VW Group CEO Herbert Diess in February became the first leader of a global automaker to open a blog hosted by Sina Weibo, the country's most popular microblog site, to pitch products and services.

In March, BYD Co., China's largest electrified vehicle maker, launched a video on a wide range of auto websites. In the video, the company used nail penetration tests to demonstrate how its redesigned lithium iron phosphate batteries are much safer than conventional batteries.

Car dealerships are embracing online marketing and sales. At the end of March, nearly a quarter of dealerships surveyed were using live- streaming services for sales and marketing, according to the China Automobile Dealers Association.

Auto suppliers are also joining the digital push. Germany's ZF Friedrichshafen has started marketing aftermarket products through a live- streaming service hosted by Chinese e-commerce giant JD.

VW executives say a new kind of Chinese customer is emerging — one eager to own a personal vehicle to avoid the risks of infection on public transport. Many of those consumers, VW says, are first-time car buyers — which describes 60 percent of China households.

"The lockdown will have a catalyst-like effect on the long-term change towards digitization of sales, services and marketing in our industry," VW China CEO Stephan Wöllenstein said in a LinkedIn post May 6. "We have to make the connection with customers, not the other way around, and become a part of their everyday digital ecosystem."

April's new-vehicle sales increase — after 21-straight months of declines — inspired Wöllenstein to write of sales climbing "to the peaks again."

But his optimism is not widely shared. In the first 10 days of May, new-vehicle sales fell 14 percent from a year earlier, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.