Auto experts explained why Russians do not consider Chinese cars reliable
Chinese brands are still perceived uniformly in the mass consciousness.
At the end of 2023, more than half (51%) of new cars sold on the Russian market were from brands of Chinese manufacturers. Thus, over the year, Chinese cars have increased their presence on the Russian market by 2.7 times, and over the last two years – by 7.3 times. However, despite such powerful expansion, knowledge of and trust in Chinese brands still lags behind similar indicators for European, Japanese and Korean competitors.
A study on knowledge of automobile brands showed that only 3 Chinese brands – Chery, Haval and Geely – are beginning to approach the level of European, Korean, and Russian mass brands in terms of spontaneous and prompted knowledge.
Chinese brands are perceived uniformly in the mass consciousness, despite radical differences in their model ranges. However, Russians associate most Chinese car brands with efficiency and thrift, environmental friendliness and innovation.
The main reason why Russians do not consider Chinese cars reliable probably lies in the lack of long-term operating experience. It is this fact that becomes the main barrier to buying Chinese cars, as 39% of respondents admitted.
– Despite their significant presence in the market, Chinese manufacturers and dealers still have to win over Russian consumers. It is necessary to get to know your target audience more deeply, build communication in order to better understand values, expectations, needs, remove barriers, debunk myths, – this is how Lyudmila Fukova, senior director for customer relations at ROMIR, commented on the results of the study.
photo: KTV-LUCH
