China’s top auto industry group is calling for the creation of a standardized budget electric vehicle category — modeled on Japan’s wildly popular K-car ecosystem — to revive sluggish domestic car sales and bring millions of new buyers into the EV market.
The proposal, from the head of the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), would target elderly consumers and rural markets where cheap, unregulated electric vehicles have flourished dangerously for years.
Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the CPCA, published the proposal in a WeChat post earlier this month. He argued that the shrinking of China’s low-end vehicle segment has become a “key bottleneck” restricting the recovery of the country’s auto industry.
The problem is real. Despite electric vehicles now commanding over 60% market share in China — a historic milestone — overall domestic auto consumption remains weak. CPCA estimates show China’s retail NEV sales hit around 860,000 units in April, a slight uptick from 850,000 in March but still below the 905,000 units recorded a year earlier.
The existing EV market is essentially bifurcated. On one end, Chinese automakers are pushing aggressively into the premium segment with increasingly sophisticated models. On the other, millions of elderly and rural consumers rely on cheap, unregulated electric microcars known as “laotoule” — literally “old man’s joy” — that cost a fraction of a real car but lack basic safety features like airbags or reinforced frames.
