More detailed policy design is promoting the lifting of the ban on pickup trucks in more qualified provinces and cities. At the same time, pickup truck companies have also begun to cultivate a positive pickup culture and jointly promote the release of more consumption potential in China's pickup truck market in the future.
The essential reason why pickup trucks have become a niche market in China is that model management and the policy of restricting traffic into the city have suppressed market demand. In recent years, with the continuous promotion of the pickup truck ban policy, it has indeed played a role in promoting the expansion and upgrading of automobile consumption and enhancing people's happiness.
The lifting of the ban on pickup trucks has become a policy consensus
On February 26, 2016, the lifting of the ban on pickup trucks was officially launched, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued the "Notice on Relaxing the Pilot Restrictions on Pickup Trucks Entering the City to Promote the Consumption of Pickup Trucks", which determined that Hebei, Liaoning, Henan and Yunnan provinces carried out the pilot project of relaxing the restrictions on pickup trucks entering the city. In 2017, Xinjiang and Hubei also joined the ranks of pickup truck lifting pilots.
Since 2019, in order to promote consumption growth, the National Development and Reform Commission and other ministries and commissions have jointly issued a series of policy documents involving pickup trucks entering the city to lift the ban, and the lifting of the ban on pickup trucks has become a policy consensus. In January 2019, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments issued the "Implementation Plan for Further Optimizing Supply to Promote Steady Growth of Consumption and Promote the Formation of a Strong Domestic Market (2019)", which clearly mentioned "steadily promoting the relaxation of the scope of restrictions on pickup trucks entering the city". In June 2019, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and the Ministry of Commerce issued the Notice on the Implementation Plan for Promoting the Upgrading and Smooth Recycling of Resources for Key Consumer Goods (2019-2020), which mentioned in the chapter "Focusing on Cultivating a Characteristic Consumer Market for Automobiles" that "encourage qualified prefecture-level and below cities to accelerate the lifting of pickup trucks into the city restrictions." In March 2020, the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the National Health Commission jointly issued the Notice on Supporting the Resumption of Business of Commercial and Trade Circulation Enterprises, and once again pointed out that in order to stabilize and expand automobile consumption, local commercial authorities should actively promote the removal of pickup trucks into the city restrictions.
Since 2019, the lifting of the ban on pickup trucks has received a positive response from some cities. In addition to the cities in the 6 pilot provinces where pickup trucks were lifted, 18 cities, including Jinan, Chongqing, Ningbo, Nanchang, Fuzhou, Ganzhou, Zibo, Yantai, Erenhot, Shanghai, Ordos, Linyi, Guiyang, Huangshan, Liuzhou, Yiyang, Fuzhou and Changchun, have relaxed the restrictions on pickup trucks entering the city.
Lifting the ban promotes the expansion and upgrading of automobile consumption
In recent years, with the gradual landing of the pickup truck lifting policy, it has played a positive role in promoting the overall expansion and upgrading of pickup trucks and cars, promoting the release of reasonable demand for cars, and enhancing people's sense of well-being.
Pull the overall consumption of pickup trucks and automobiles to increase. Since the lifting of the pickup ban pilot in 2016, the demand for pickup trucks has increased from 320,000 in 2015 to 490,000 in 2020, an increase of 51% in five years, while the overall growth of cars in the same period is only 3% (24.6 million in 2015 and 25.31 million in 2020). From a regional point of view, the sales of pickup trucks in the unbanned provinces are significantly better than in the non-banned provinces, such as in 2020, the sales of pickup trucks in the unbanned provinces increased by 17.9% compared with 2019, and the non-banned provinces (excluding Beijing) only increased by 7.7%. Quantitative surveys of automobile consumers show that the expansion mechanism of pickup truck sales is not simply a replacement for other automobile markets, but also includes the additional purchase needs of passenger car users and the upgrading needs of micro commercial vehicle users, both of which have the significance of promoting consumption. Among passenger car users, the proportion of selecting "as long as the pickup truck is released into the city (other policies remain unchanged), I will buy a pickup truck" is 10.7%; among the passenger car users who intend to buy pickup trucks, the proportion of selecting "My current car will not be sold, I will buy an additional pickup truck" is 41.2%; among pickup truck users, the proportion of users who have more than 2 cars at the same time is 37.9%, which is significantly higher than the 19.2% of passenger car users, indicating that additional purchase and plural ownership are typical characteristics of pickup truck users. The lifting of the ban on pickup trucks can promote more demand for car purchases. In addition, among the replacement users of pickup trucks, the proportion of users upgraded by micro-passengers/micro-trucks was 30.2%, second only to pickup trucks (34.0%), indicating that the lifting of the pickup truck can promote the upgrading needs of micro-car users and bring about an increase in the value of bicycles.
Stimulate new consumption of automobile life. The lifting of the ban on pickup trucks can enhance the "consumption attributes" of pickup trucks, and drive new consumption of off-road, self-driving tours, car play, modification and other car life. Under the guidance of the policy of lifting the ban on pickup trucks, the supply of pickup truck enterprises has shown a trend of high-end, passenger and diversified, and the attractiveness of consumers has been greatly improved. Great Wall, Jiangling, Zhengzhou Nissan, Jiangxi Isuzu, Futian, Jianghuai, SAIC Maxus and other enterprises have launched a new generation of pickup trucks, with the same level of SUV basically equivalent to the appearance, interior, configuration, environmental protection level, the company also based on the unique advantages of pickup truck cargo box and chassis, and the modification plant to cooperate with the modification factory to launch a fishing version, outdoor version, crossing version, photography version, RV version and other diversified versions. According to the survey, the main motivation of passenger car users who intend to buy pickup trucks is that "pickup trucks are more suitable for off-road and self-driving travel", and the proportion of choices reached 47.1%. Among the users who have purchased pickup trucks, 37.9% said that after purchasing pickup trucks, "the proportion of self-driving trips and playing in the suburbs on weekends has increased", 24.8% said that "the frequency of driving away on holidays and going to other places has increased", 8.4% said that "the frequency of playing with cars has increased, such as crossing, climbing, wading, sand rushing, etc.", and 13.1% have modified pickup trucks to varying degrees.
Enhance people's sense of well-being. Pickup trucks have the function of dual-use and separation of passengers and goods, and have certain advantages in facilitating urban and rural residents to carry tools, goods travel and logistics distribution, but the policy of restricting pickup trucks into the city has suppressed the reasonable demand for residents to use cars. The lifting of the ban on pickup trucks can release reasonable needs and give people the right to choose the ideal model, which is conducive to improving people's sense of well-being. In the survey, it was found that some users replaced the original micro-passengers with pickup trucks after the local pickup truck was lifted, which not only improved the experience of daily life travel, but also no longer worried about "mixed passenger and cargo"; and some users, after the pickup truck was lifted, sold the original micro-passengers and passenger cars, replaced a pickup truck to achieve "one car multi-purpose", and the cost of car maintenance dropped significantly.
