“三大负担”加剧中国汽车市场国际化

Insights on Household Savings ofChinese Car Buyers (2025)TengYi Research Institute“Big 3 Burdens” Exacerbate Chinese Car Market InvolutionAuthorsDirector/Chief Analystzhoulijun1@yiche.comLijun ZhouIndustry Analystgaoying1@yiche.comYing GaoIndustry Analystshibenya@yiche.comBenya ShiThe current level of intense competition (often termed as “involution” or “juan” in Chinese) in China’s car market is widely recognized. Aside from calling on relevant authorities to regulate and curb this phenomenon, there is considerable concern about whether it will continue to intensify. Given that household expenditure is a key indicator of current consumer spending capacity in the car market, and household savings serve as a crucial measure of future consumption potential, this report focuses on household savings as a primary variable. It aims to explore the future consumption prospects of China’s car market and the evolution of industry “involution;”In the first two decades of this century, Chinese car buying households had modest savings. This is primarily because the main consumer base in the car market consisted of young buyers, who largely relied on parental support, especially for marriage-related vehicle purchases. In recent years, Chinese car buying household savings steadily increased. In 2024, these households added on average RMB64,000 in savings, an amount sufficient to directly purchase entry-level electric vehicles like the Xing Yuan, Seagull or Bingo. Notably, only 9.19% of households reported no additional savings, while the largest proportion – over 25% – added savings between RMB50,000 and RMB100,000, enabling them to afford compact models such as the Qin PLUS, Starship 7 or Lavida. The proportion of households adding more than RMB100,000 in savings experi-enced a significant decline; the share of those that added between RMB100,000 and RMB200,000 dropped to 10.64%, while that of those that added RMB200,000-RMB500,000 sharply fell to 3.06%. Few households added savings between RMB500,000 and RMB1 million, with even fewer adding more than RMB1 million;Chinese car buying households on average had total savings of RMB288,200 as of 2024. This figure is more than four times the amount of new savings added and exceeds the average transaction price of new passen-ger vehicles in China by over RMB100,000. This meant that these households could afford premium models such as the BMW 3 Series, Audi A4L or Mercedes C-Class. The distribution of savings across different ranges was most prominent in the RMB50,000-100,000, RMB100,000-200,000 and RMB200,000-500,000 range, accounting for 16.80%, 21.53% and 24.10%, respectively of the households. These three buckets correspond to the core price segments of China’s car market: entry-level, volume and high-end, respec-tively. The proportion of households with savings exceeding RMB500,000 significantly declined, with those in the RMB500,000-1 million range dropping to 13.95%, and those over RMB1 million accounting for