New automobile sales management measures will be introduced soon

Recently, the news about the upcoming release of the new version of the automobile sales management system has spread like wildfire. According to sources, the draft of the "Automotive Sales Management Measure" has basically been completed and is currently being solicited for opinions from relevant ministries and commissions, and will soon be publicized on the website of the Ministry of Commerce. Informed sources disclosed that it is expected that the "Automotive Sales Management Measures" will be publicly solicited in January 2015 and will be formally introduced in the first quarter.

Compared to the “Implementation Measures for Automobile Brand Sales Management” that has been implemented for nearly 10 years, the new edition erased the words “brand” and “implementation”, and at the same time restricted the import channels of parallel imported cars. The industry believes that the disappearance of "brands" can be seen as a great subversion of the "old methods", and "pressed" car dealers for many years are also full of expectations.

Unauthorized dealers will obtain legal status

At present, China’s car ownership has exceeded the 100 million mark, and car dealers have matured with the rapid growth of the market. However, unlike the multi-brand licensing business model in which developed countries permit dealers, domestic auto sales use a single-brand licensing model. Many people in the industry believe that the original overly sophisticated supervision and management model has not been able to adapt to the development of the market. In fact, car dealers basically followed the form of a one-year sign before selling auto licenses. However, for distributors, this has become a stress and burden, and there has been excess capacity in the auto industry. In the existing market environment, car dealers have been unable to recover their investment within one year's sales period.

The new “Draft for Soliciting Opinions” is being circulated among the Jiangxi Auto Circulation Industry Association and major automotive groups in Nanchang. Many CEOs of the group are excited to see it, and they deeply feel that the future of the auto industry is promising.

The current "Implementation Measures for Automobile Brand Sales Management" was released in 2005. Since it started from the perspective of the automotive OEM, it did not take into account the interests of distributors. Therefore, since the introduction of this method, there has been continuous controversy. With the host industry expected to be overly optimistic this year, the auto market slowed down and other reasons, resulting in frequent outbreaks of dealer inventory and other issues, the contradiction between the interests of distributors and OEMs is further highlighted.

The first authorized operating period will not be less than 5 years

At the same time, the Exposure Draft clearly states that if the supplier and the distributor are authorized to operate, their authorized operating period is generally not less than 2 years at a time, and the initial authorized operating period shall not be less than 5 years. Some dealers said that this action has subverted the practice of the annual signing of the industry's general implementation, which can guarantee that most dealers recoup earlier investment.

The traditional contradictions between distributors and suppliers, such as business policies and exit mechanisms, are also the focus of the draft. For example, Article 34 of the Exposure Draft proposes that commercial policies such as marketing incentives for auto suppliers should follow the principles of fairness, impartiality, and transparency, and must not discriminate against distributors.

Based on the above background, the Ministry of Commerce investigates and clarifies the appeals of various parties and reorganizes the automobile circulation field, drafting the “Draft for Soliciting Opinions”. Among them, “allowing authorized sales and non-authorized sales to exist simultaneously” is an adjustment to the current auto sales management system and is also the first time to affirm the legal status of non-authorized dealers. However, this does not mean that non-authorized dealers operating parallel imported vehicles will have a huge impact on the existing auto dealership system in the future.

Parallel imports have limited impact on the system

In the new "Measures", non-authorized operations will obtain legal status, but parallel imported cars are still "unknown". The revised version of the new "Regulations" stipulates that "the vehicle that has been registered or used at home and abroad may not be sold in the name of selling automobiles." This means that the prohibition of imported vehicles from being "secondary sales" in the Chinese market will have an adverse impact on the development of parallel import business, especially the "American regulations" that account for nearly half of the parallel imports. .

According to statistics, in the first half of this year, the sales of parallel imported cars in China exceeded 50,000, and it is expected that the annual sales growth will exceed 30%. "The United States regulatory vehicles" accounted for 40% of the total number of parallel imported vehicles, and most of the other parallel imports were from the Middle East.

However, in the "Several Opinions on Strengthening Importation" issued by the General Office of the State Council previously announced, it is necessary to intensify the pilot work on the parallel import of automobiles in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone. With the disclosure of the details of the new "Measures," the parallel import car dealers who had just seen a bit of dawn have yet to have enough time to cheer and were thrown into a cold water.

“If it is really like the new approach, the US import channel will be blocked, so we can only look for other channels to import 'American regulations vehicles'.” Dongyang’s largest parallel imported car dealership platform—Zhongzheng China International Motor City staff believes that if the US channel is blocked and the cost of dealers rises, this will inevitably lead to an increase in the price of "American regulations vehicles." "The impact of parallel imports on the existing auto agency system will become very limited."

According to the "Draft for Comments", "vehicles that have been registered or used within and outside the territory of China must not be sold in the name of selling automobiles." This means that the ban on "secondary sales" of imported vehicles in the Chinese market will have an adverse impact on the development of parallel import business, especially the US regulatory vehicles that account for half of the parallel imports in 2013.

Brand licensing will be broken car supermarket will become possible

It is worth noting that from the solicitation of comments by the Ministry of Commerce, it can be seen that the original "Implementation Measures for Automobile Brand Sales Management" will become "Automotive Sales Management Measures" and will no longer emphasize brand attributes. Industry analysis, although only a few words, but this means that the future of our country's basic model of car sales from the current one car 4S shop can only sell one brand car into a car that can sell multiple brands, "car supermarket", New sales models such as the "Automotive Store Comprehensive Maintenance Factory" will become the emerging direction of development. It is possible that this will happen in China. The voice of automobile manufacturers and distributors will also change.