Luxury car logos get Chinese touch

A NEW state regulation may take some of the luster off the luxury car business as image-conscious customers will soon be displaying Chinese characters if their vehicles are made inside the country.

The government has ordered the nation's automakers to stamp their name in Chinese characters on the tail of every domestically made model, including those that carry BMW and Mercedes Benz logos.

The new rule, posted last week on the National Development and Reform Commission Website, applies to all cars sold after May 1.

The regulation was designed to protect consumer rights and enhance brand awareness, said the top planning and monitoring body.

"Obviously, the Chinese government hopes to highlight the brand image of Chinese companies as they cooperate with foreign auto giants," said Wang Zhihui, an auto analyst at Shenyin Wanguo Securities Co.

"Domestically made premium cars such as BMWs, Mercedes Benz and Audis will be affected most as the new sign is likely to damage their high-end brand image and raise concern over quality," he said.

"The new regulation will change their marketing strategy as they continue their localization in a move to lower car prices to attract more Chinese customers, and it could boost the sales of other imported cars such as Lexus and Volvo."

BMW Motors Corp now produces three models of its new 3 series and 5 series in China under cooperation with Brilliance Automobile Corp, turning out more than 15,000 units a year. Daimler-Chrysler AG rolled out two Mercedes Benz E-class models assembled in Beijing at the end of last year, while Audi last year sold more than 55,700 units.

These Chinese-made cars mainly target the domestic market as their prices are about 30 percent lower than those of imported ones.

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I think this is extremely dictatorial - I don't understand the reasoning behind it really.

IMHO, the Chinese government has many odd ideas. They have a 'nationalist' agenda of sorts - they wish to promote their country's industry and whatever. I think that there is some great bonus to having a local partnership to manufacture and sell cars. This is one more step - I reckon it's to push the manufacturers to become more and more Chinese, if you will.

They know that manufacturers really want to be a part of this next big market, and they're willing to make hay whilst the sun shines. No manufacturer wants to fight, and perhaps be punished - someone else would just take their market share, gladly.

Somewhat OT, but if you guys have heard about the big search engine companies agreeing to censor their search results, then you might have an idea what we're dealing with. Everybody seems to think that they've gotta be in it..

This is just stupid.

That is interesting SV. Why does everybody forget about India?........India will be an economic giant too this century.

The Chinese government are stating to piss me off. First all the internet censorship and no this. *** man

internet censorship? i didn't hear anything about that!

Don't want to turn this into a political thread, but type in "Tiananmen" in Google USA and you get this: - ONLY REGISTERED AND ACTIVATED USERS CAN SEE ALL LINKS - CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Type in the same thing in Google China and you get this: - ONLY REGISTERED AND ACTIVATED USERS CAN SEE ALL LINKS - CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Google's not the only one doing it. Yahoo! and MSN are in it too. I'm sure China is not the only one doing it though.

Well, I suppose India is the one that fewer people know about; therefore maybe the manufacturers also forget about it? Sure, it will experience good economic growth, sooner or later.. but perhaps it won't see growth as soon as China.

I would have thought India would be an easier place to conduct business, though. Less restrictive, and a greater proportion of the population would speak English.

As for the Chinese government, no surprises there, for me.