"I would love to buy a leathery and stylish SUV and drive to travel by myself, but after seeing a few 4S stores, there is nothing too suitable, almost none of them have given us a car developed by the 'post-60s' (over 60 years old) crowd, and now the new models launched by car companies are for young people." What Mr. Gu, who has just retired, said is the common feeling of many car consumers in this age group. Nowadays, the consumption of the domestic automobile market shows another trend of "new four modernizations", that is, middle age, singleness, feminization and grandfather. However, the elderly consumer market has been ignored by most car companies.
The "post-60s" car market is heating up
Many of today's elderly people, especially the elderly in the city, even after retirement, have an ageless heart, and buying a car and driving is a big hobby. "I just bought the BJ90 last month and it feels good, this car is suitable for long distances, full horsepower and good vision. This season is a good time for tourism, and I am ready to drive to Tibet for a spin. Mr. Zhang, a researcher who has just retired from a scientific research unit, is very satisfied with the car he bought and has begun to prepare for a self-driving tour.
Will these elderly people who like cars form a new blue ocean of car consumption? "Nowadays, most of the retired elderly in the city are physically tough and like to drive, they are busy working before retirement, and they have free time after retirement, and many of these people have certain economic strength, their children are adults, basically no worries, many of them like to travel and travel by car." Yang Yongnian, an analyst at China Merchants Securities, told the China Automobile News reporter that many elderly people in the impression like to manage their money, which also reflects that most of them have no economic pressure, and their economic strength can be seen when buying and consuming cars.
According to the data of the seventh national census released recently, in 2020, China's total population will reach 1.41 billion, and the number of people aged 60 and over will be 260 million, accounting for 18.7%,; the population aged 65 and over will be 190 million, accounting for 13.5%. Data show that the domestic car consumer population over 55 years old has shown a growth trend in recent years, and the purchase and consumption of cars in 2020 exceeded 1 million vehicles, with a market share of more than 6%, which is gradually becoming a mainstream market segment.
What models are preferred for the elderly to buy a car? "It's not that there's no money to buy a car now, it's that there's no particularly suitable model." Mr. Jiang, who retired from a state-owned enterprise, told reporters that he is still in good health and economically prosperous after retirement, and he hopes to have a suitable model to travel.
"Many of these 'post-60s' people have stable pensions and social security medical insurance, and buying a car is not a burden." Sun Quanshu, a researcher at the Economic Development Research Center of Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance, said in an interview with China Automobile News that the proportion of young consumers buying cars after "post-90s" has exceeded 40%, compared with the conservative estimate that 4% of the consumers over 60 years old buy cars, this number has exceeded 10 million people, such a huge mainstream group of automobile consumption, more than the consumption of many automobile consumption countries, but there are few cars specially developed for the elderly in China. This is a market to be tapped.
At present, many new car conferences are based on youth rock, net red screen, and even "three tires" as the eye-catching point, there are few related elements of the elderly, even in extremely individual cases, they are mostly labeled as "old and weak" (welfare cars). "In fact, many people in the 'post-60s' group are 'multi-gold uncles', as long as there is a suitable model, they will not hesitate to pay." Fu Yalin, a researcher at the Modern Consumption Research Center of Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, told the "China Automobile News" reporter that the lack of "grandfather cars" has made the elderly begin to manage their finances, if car companies really pay attention to the elderly consumers like they pay attention to young consumer groups, and design "grandfather cars" that meet the needs and varieties, it is likely that they will squeeze out the "old man's music" without the market.
In the past, in people's impressions, many elderly people are burdens on the family, and today's retired elderly people basically belong to the consumer group of "idle and rich". "Most of these elderly people like to play with cars and have great consumption potential." Cui Haoping, a researcher at the Guangdong Urban Economic Development Research Center, told the "China Automobile News" reporter that according to the latest regulations implemented in China from November 20, 2020, the upper age limit for applying for a 70-year-old driving license for small cars, small automatic cars and mopeds has been cancelled, which has also increased the number of middle-aged and elderly consumer groups to buy cars and drive, and the car purchase demand of the "post-60s" car group will be gradually released, which is a huge potential market for car companies. In fact, there are often elderly people who travel by car in major scenic spots, who will not only take photos and videos themselves, but also bring their own accessories such as pots and pans and roof tents. These real needs may inspire car companies to develop new models for the elderly population.
The economic characteristics of "silver hair" are prominent
What are the characteristics of car consumption in the elderly? "We've just retired now, we don't have a big problem with our health, and we want to go out on a road trip. As for the models we need, we hope to have assisted driving, intelligent, networked configuration, but we must be reliable in performance, the appearance should be atmospheric, there are fashion elements better, don't think that the elderly are not 'tide', many international fashion design masters are elderly. The words of retired employee Mr. Yan sound like a joke, but in fact, they are the "pain points" of the current elderly car market.
The consumer market for the elderly has characteristics that are significantly different from other groups. Fu Yalin summed it up as the following three points: one is the pursuit of brand, because they generally have good economic strength; the second is the pursuit of safety and reliability, after experiencing the years of young adventure, their personality is more stable, such a psychology is also reflected in car consumption, hoping that the car must be durable; the third is the pursuit of beautiful and generous fashion, the elderly also have aesthetics, and the aesthetic level is higher, in terms of fashion, some elderly car consumers are not looking down on the trendy car fashion modeling, Instead, it is worried that cars with too fashionable shapes may have insufficient safety performance; fourth, they prefer mid-to-high-end brands, and they basically have the same psychology from home decoration to car consumption.
"The elderly are more careful in their thinking, so they have higher requirements for the equipment in the car." Sun Quanshu said that as far as the interior of the car is concerned, the elderly consumer group one is hoping that the seats in the car should be spacious and comfortable, and the space should be larger; the second is that it is best to have advanced assisted driving, convenient and labor-saving; the third is that the entertainment and sound system should be good, and now the elderly not only like traditional opera and Chinese folk songs, many people also like symphony, European and American pop songs and rock, and have higher requirements for car audio. "It is worth noting that China will enter the aging society, the proportion of young consumer groups to buy cars will decline significantly, and car companies will miss market opportunities if they still ignore the 'post-60s' car consumer group." He said.
In fact, the development of models for the elderly is not necessarily old-fashioned and "old-fashioned". "Now many elderly people do not serve the old, and they do not like others to say that they are old, and they do not like it if the models they develop do not have a fashion atmosphere." Guangfa Securities analyst Lian Haiming told the "China Automobile News" reporter that the current elderly buy cars prefer to be trendy and practical, the pursuit of novel appearance and scientific and technological functions is no less than that of young people, the city's enterprises and institutions and institutions retired people, most of them will use the Internet and computers, the ability to learn new technologies, new things is also very strong. Therefore, for intelligent, electrified new models, the elderly are also interested. But it should be noted that unlike today's young people, most of the elderly look at things rigorously and meticulously, and look at the car more carefully, if they find that the car design or manufacturing is not fine enough, they will lose interest in the car, because they feel that the car companies that do not do things seriously are not trustworthy.
In fact, the current elderly car consumer group and the young car consumer group have similarities and differences. "The common feature of the elderly car consumer group and the 'post-90s' automobile consumer group is that they are not price sensitive and have more subjective characteristics when choosing models." Yang Yongnian said that a considerable number of elderly people have different degrees of vision decline, and the agility of the action is not enough, so in the driving function control, the physical button may be more suitable for this type of person than the touch screen. The physical buttons can be larger, the display text on them should be larger, and it can even be designed to make a tone when the hand touches a button to prevent misoperation.
To develop the aging automobile market, what should car companies pay attention to? "Like developing other age group segments, it is necessary to grasp the key points and comprehensively layout them in combination with the company's own conditions." Fu Yalin suggested that, first, enterprises should understand the segment of the aging automobile market from the height of development strategy, and with great attention, there will be pragmatic actions; the second is to pay attention to the diversified layout, for all kinds of needs in the aging automobile market, not only to have SUVs, MPVs and other models for healthy elderly people, but also to develop small cars, but also to have "welfare cars" that are specially for the elderly with poor physical conditions, which is convenient for wheelchairs to get up and down, such as GAC Honda Odyssey Hybrid Welfare Edition has become a hot sale The third is to pay attention to the details of model design and highlight consumer demand, such as the preference of elderly car consumer groups for large physical buttons, voice prompts, and the location of the kettle on the car.
Services should be close to the elderly
"After buying a car, I have a deeper understanding of how convenient it is if there is a 4S shop near the community or even in the community." Retired staff Mr. Su said in an interview with reporters that on the one hand, in many communities where retirees are more concentrated, if there are 4S shops nearby, this group of "post-60s" car selection and car purchase will be more convenient, they have run a number of 4S stores in order to buy a suitable car, almost half of Beijing City, because the current scale of the city is getting bigger and bigger, traffic congestion is a common phenomenon, if there is a 4S store nearby, the advantages are obvious; on the other hand, no matter how high-end cars are bought, they need regular maintenance and even repairs. Driving to the 4S shop in the city for maintenance is very time-consuming, if the car dealer can open the 4S shop near the community, it will be much more convenient, and it will also invisibly pull the car purchase consumption of the elderly.
In this regard, the reporter learned in interviews with elderly car owners in Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Shenzhen and other cities that the current elderly car owners live in more communities, whether it is the buildings of early years or newly developed communities, there are few 4S shops nearby. "Dealers want to be close to mainstream consumer groups, giving priority to communities with more young people and shopping malls or attractions near the city that they like to go to, and rarely consider communities with more elderly people." Wang Xing, manager of a 4S store in Shenzhen, told reporters.
It is understood that in order to save costs, many 4S stores are gradually moving to the suburbs, but many elderly car consumers live in old communities in urban areas. When developing the aging automobile market, it is also necessary to consider the layout from the perspective of the whole industry chain. "Auto companies should make a fuss about the construction of channels such as sales and service." Sun Quanshu suggested that combined with the characteristics of car consumption for the elderly, 4S stores can choose some communities where the elderly are more concentrated to open stores or set up points, providing more convenient services for elderly car consumers to buy cars, repair and maintain, and open up the "last kilometer" is very critical. At the same time, in the case of conditions, it is also possible to provide appointments for elderly car owners to provide on-site maintenance services.
Chinese auto brands should seize this new opportunity in the aging car market. "Seizing the aging car market now means seizing the opportunity to compete, and it also means seizing new growth points in profits." Yang Yongnian said that whether the "grandfather car" can form a market depends on how car companies and dealers do it.
Expert perspective
◆ Cui Haoping, researcher of Guangdong Urban Economic Development Research Center:
The consumption concept of "new and elderly" has been upgraded
This generation of elderly people in the current city is significantly different from the elderly in the past. This group has the following three consumption characteristics: First, it is no longer as busy with life as the elderly before, rushing for their children, having almost no time and interest space for themselves, and even fewer people buying cars for themselves. Now most of the "new and elderly" in the city "have leisure and money", have their own interests and hobbies, and have more car lovers; second, they are generally more educated, in the information age, most of them are interested in cars, computers, and the Internet, and have a rapid adaptability to new things, and will become the mainstream consumer group of smart cars; third, the "new elderly" have a large part of their preferences for tourism, social, technology, entertainment and the resulting consumer demand, and a considerable part of them will be realized by cars.
◆ Fu Yalin, researcher of modern consumption research center of Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics:
Design the right way to have a market
For car companies, it is the key to seize the interests of elderly consumer groups to develop marketable models. In terms of car companies, first of all, it is necessary to seriously study the consumption characteristics of this group, so as to carry out targeted model design; secondly, it is necessary to deeply study the physiological and psychological characteristics of elderly car consumers, and set the functions in the car according to the needs, both with overall fashion and beauty, and with intimate practical functions, so that the car will be loved by the elderly car consumers; secondly, as for the young user group, make efforts to continuously study the elderly car consumer group to understand the different needs of this group. So as to design different types of cars, and even designed into a series of models, as long as the design is right, there will be sales.
◆ Sun Quanshu, researcher of the Economic Development Research Center of Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance:
Intelligence is the selling point of Grandpa's car
Today's elderly car consumers pay more attention to "taste" cars. The main embodiment is that the current elderly are different from the elderly who walked around the clock in their pockets many years ago, and have higher expectations for the car. Therefore, with the evolution of automobile intelligence, networking, and electrification, the scientific and technological content of the car has become the interest point of the elderly car consumer group; the second is that the intelligent car brings more practical and entertainment value, so that the elderly consumers with a variety of interests and hobbies can also realize the functions of brushing short videos, listening to music, online shopping, and finding footholds on the electronic map in the self-driving process; the third is that with the improvement of automobile auxiliary driving technology, the elderly will be easier to drive in the future. Therefore, intelligence is undoubtedly a major selling point to attract the elderly car consumer group.
◆ Yang Yongnian, analyst of China Merchants Securities:
Older people have a greater sense of identification with quality services
The aftermarket service of elderly car consumption is a tempting "big cake" and a profit growth point for dealers to be deeply developed. Dealers should realize that, on the one hand, elderly car consumers are more interested in convenient car purchase, maintenance and repair services, which is also the starting point for dealers to deeply understand this market and optimize the layout of outlets; on the other hand, elderly car consumers will have a strong sense of identification with 4S stores or service methods with high service quality and good attitude, and it is easy to change. Therefore, striving to improve the quality of service and conscientiously providing targeted quality services for elderly consumers is the best way for dealers to obtain profit growth points.
Text: Zhao Jianguo Editor: Chen Wei Layout: Liu Xiaoye