China’s car scene is fascinating to behold, from its diverse selection of vehicles to its mind-blowing infrastructure.
I recently travelled to China as a guest of Omoda & Jaecoo, which gave me the opportunity to visit the cities of Shanghai and Wuhu.
Both cities had their own stories to tell with regard to local car preferences and Chinese culture in general.
A sight to behold
The first thing you’ll notice as an outside observer entering China is the sheer scale of everything around you, with skyscrapers dominating the skyline and mile after mile of roads.
Nearly every road is three or more lanes wide, and there are massive elevated highways that seemingly stretch to the horizon.
For a city of 22 million people, Shanghai has surprisingly little traffic outside of rush hour, which is no doubt thanks to the area’s robust public transport systems.
The road to the airport has a dedicated lane for private taxis, and you’re never far from a train or bus station.
Once you’re on the road, you’ll soon notice that there are essentially only three types of cars in China – sedans, SUVs, and MPVs.
It’s a far cry from South Africa’s motoring scene, where VW Polo hatchbacks and Toyota Hilux bakkies dominate the streets.
In contrast, China evidently does not care for leisure double cabs and it’s rare to see the occasional workhorse single cab, as vans are far more popular for businesses.
The lack of hatchbacks is more intriguing, as I had initially assumed that small cars would be preferable in a densely-packed east Asian city, but this was far from the case.
It’s worth noting that Shanghai is a wealthy international city, which means that anyone who can afford to buy a car is unlikely to bother with a hatchback and will go straight for an SUV or sedan.
Speaking of, the vast majority of sedans I saw on my travels were long-wheelbase (LWB) models, particularly those from foreign brands like BMW, Audi, or Mercedes-Benz.
Especially when it comes to luxury brands, Chinese customers expect to have the extra legroom and comfort that a LWB model provides, which is why every advert for a German car that I saw was for the LWB version of the vehicle in question.
As for the cars themselves, nearly all of the vehicles on the road are Chinese, as you’d expect.
In a wealthy city like Shanghai, you’ll also see a number of German saloons and even the occasional supercar like a Lamborghini, but other makes like Toyota are far and few between.
Again, it’s an interesting comparison with South Africa where names like Toyota, Ford, and Hyundai dominate the charts – all of which you’d be hard pressed to find in great numbers in China.
Things became even more interesting when we moved to Wuhu, which is arguably a more accurate representation of a Chinese city compared to a global destination like Shanghai.
Wuhu is a relatively small industrial city (by Chinese standards) that happens to be the hometown of Chery, which is very obvious when you start looking at the cars in use.
In Shanghai, nearly all private taxis were from Roewe (a sub-brand of SAIC), but these were all replaced by Chery sedans in Wuhu.
Most cars in Shanghai were also upmarket and relatively new, but the average age of the vehicles in Wuhu was clearly much older at around five years or more.
Here you’ll see a fair number of older Japanese cars like Mazda, Honda or Toyota, but again the overwhelming majority are Chinese.
Wuhu also had a lot more motorcycles and small vehicles, including kei cars like the Chery Ice Cream.
The sheer number of Chinese brands is another thing to wrap your head around, as it goes far beyond the few names we recognize in South Africa like Chery and Haval.
Avatr, Roewe, Wuling, Zeekr, and Xiaomi are just some of the brands on the roads, and you’ll need to take a photo of the badge and to a reverse image search to figure out what some of the more unfamiliar models are.
New energy vehicles are also very prevalent, with Tesla and BYD being the two most common examples.
In Shanghai, there wasn’t much evidence of electric car charging infrastructure, but parking spots in general were few and far between.
The limited street parking is usually taken by taxis, so you’ll typically need to find an underground parking centre.
Parking lots can also be found underneath the elevated highways, and fast charging stations are fairly common in these locations.
As mentioned, motorbikes are also very common (many of which are electric), and you’ll see that many locals use a blanket cover on their bikes to protect themselves from the wind and rain as they ride along.
The use of motorbikes and bicycles is incentivized by dedicated bike lanes, which are separated from the main road by a divider with flower beds or trees.
On that note, I was impressed with the general beauty of China’s streets, as most roads were dotted with greenery from trees to meticulously maintained flower beds of varying colours.
The pillars supporting the highways are draped in wire frames to encourage ivy growth, and a small fleet of water trucks can occasionally be seen spraying the flower beds as they drive past.
Of course, one other comparison to South Africa that has to be made is the fact that I failed to spot a single broken street light in my travels in China.
At home, we’re all familiar with the idea that certain streets are dark and that intersections are four-way stops because we can’t remember the last time the lights worked.
This couldn’t be further from the truth in China, where everything is meticulously maintained and you can’t even find evidence of litter, let alone a busted robot.
The streets of China
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