Chinese Lawmakers, Automakers Building Centralised Digital Car Sales Platform

No less than 16 Chinese automakers recently attended a summit symposium with lawmakers and regulators where they've agreed to develop a centralised digital car sales platform.

Reports coming out of China indicate that a coalition of the country’s top automakers recently convened with lawmakers and regulators. Together, they’ve jointly agreed to develop a centralised digital car sales platform.

A summit symposium for which hosted by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) reportedly took place earlier this month on July 23 in Wuxi.

Besides government officials, reportedly present here were industry leaders and representatives from no less than 16 leading automakers. Amongst them were big names like BYD, Geely, SAIC, FAW, Nio, as well as Xpeng.

According to further reports online, this effort seeks to streamline vehicle purchase, insurance, tax payments, licencing and financing. Though focused primarily on new car transactions, the effort is also reportedly set to increase transparency in the fight against “zero-kilometre” used car sales.

Also termed ‘zero-mileage’ or ‘0-KM’ car sales, it refers to the widespread trend in China where new vehicles are resold shortly after registration to avoid taxes. This new centralised platform brings enhanced data sharing and traceability to combat this.

This marks a paradigm shift of sorts for the Chinese automotive market where it has traditionally involved fragmented processes. In turn, this required buyers to interact with multiple agencies and submit redundant documents.

The symposium saw plenty of matters discussed towards this centralised digital platform for new vehicle sales.

At this summit, Chinese government officials also highlighted several ongoing digital reforms aimed towards enhancing efficiency and effectiveness. Included is an AI-based pre-inspections that enables new vehicles to undergo regulatory checks at the factory, thereby reducing the time required for registration.

Reports further indicate that the pilot programmes for which in the cities of Chongqing and Changzhou demonstrated that a fully digitalised online services can speed up processing times roughly up to 60%.

Furthermore, local Chinese automakers participating in which also actively contribute to these reforms, report sources. An example comes from Changan Automobile, and the firm has reportedly implemented factory-level inspection for all vehicles and completing over 700 online registrations.

In fact, said effort by Changan Automobile reportedly sees it reduce its average customer processing time form three days to just under 30 minutes. Similarly, rivals such as GAC, Dongfeng, Geely, GWM, as well as Hyundai, are all preparing to initiate similar digitalised vehicle registration services too.

At the summit mentioned, participants reportedly emphasised the need for nationwide standards, expanded online services, and a clear roadmap to address these challenges.

Interestingly, China’s Ministry of Public Security even noted that over 200 million vehicle owners have benefited from digital documents like electronic driving licenses, which also helped in reducing administrative burdens.

Lastly, the summit concluded with calls for enhanced cooperation among government agencies, automakers, and service providers towards improving data connectivity, sharing platform resources, developing secure technologies, and optimising user experiences.