Reprinted from China’s Xinhua Daily
Title of original article: Make the world love Chinese cars more —— Aicarglobal build overseas automobile sales platform
“Hello Africa!” at 2:25 a.m. Beijing time on March 24, Leon, founder of Nanjing Aicar Information Technology Co.Ltd shared the new positioning in his WeChat circle of friends. On that day, he arrived in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, and in the following week, he will visit the largest local car dealers and visit the company’s overseas warehouse in the Republic of Djibouti.
Aicar was founded in Jianye District in April last year and is mainly engaged in the export of automobiles and spare parts. A computer and an Internet cable are the main tools for the enterprise to communicate with customers and link to the world.
A week ago, the Nanjing office, Li Xuan and reporters to share the good news, this year, Aicar Technology almost every week from Shanghai, Ningbo and Guangzhou ports around the world, the first quarter is expected to sell about 200 units of vehicles. March 11, the enterprise also received at the same time from other places of the five car orders, Li Xuan deliberately sent a circle of friends to commemorate,. “Thank you for the partners, Aicar, let the world love Chinese cars more.”
Before starting his own business, Leon was responsible for developing overseas markets at Dongfeng Motor Group. He recalled that when he first worked in Lima, the capital of Peru, in 2015, Chinese cars were poorly recognized overseas. Locals drove European and American cars in the 1930s and 1940s, Japanese cars in the 1960s, Korean cars in the 1990s, and then Indian Tata cars. “We went to visit local dealers, often the appointment was made but the other party ended up breaking the appointment or being two or three hours later than the appointed time, including a dealer in the northern city of Trujillo who talked for many rounds without making a deal, and the other party said that his business was founded by his grandfather in the 1950s, and that Chinese cars were too ‘young ‘.”
“By 2019, we had opened up markets in Chile and Ecuador, and later entered Mexico and Brazil, countries that have their own auto industries. By last year, almost all mainstream Chinese auto brands had penetrated the South American market, and the market share of Chinese cars in some parts of South America had reached about 30 percent.” Li Chuan frankly said that he has experienced the complete Chinese car from the difficult to open up the market to be accepted to the process of reputation, in recent years, the country’s exports of used cars from the pilot to the full liberalization of multiple factors prompted him to select the second-hand car export track innovation and entrepreneurship.
At the beginning of the venture, Aicar mainly relies on Alibaba International Station and other third-party platforms for sales. When interviewed by the reporter in September last year, the enterprise was laying out its own sales platform and overseas warehouse. In only half a year, the overseas warehouse has landed in Djibouti and Panama. “In the past, after the customer placed an order, we need to purchase from the supplier, the best-selling models do not necessarily have a car in stock, coupled with the booking and the possible congestion of the port after arrival, from the order to pick up the car, the African customers generally need to wait two to three months, and the customers in South America need to wait three to four months.” Aicar Technology Deputy General Manager Wu Ling said that after the layout of the overseas warehouse, the best-selling models can be stocked in the warehouse, customers can be delivered the next day or even on the same day of the order, but also provide value-added services such as after-sales.
Compared to last year, Aicar technology single order of the number of goods did not increase significantly, but the number of customers increased significantly, almost doubling the number of orders per month, so far the enterprise’s largest customer, Djibouti’s automobile dealers have ordered more than 100 units of automobiles. Wuling analyzed that an important reason for the good sales is the enterprise’s self-built sales platform Aicarglobal.com was officially launched in the fourth quarter of last year, “the platform has accumulated more than 400 models, covering more than 50 domestic car brands, foreign customers can log on to Aicarglobal to inquire about the main parameters of China’s automobiles, but also consult to get a quote, which is equivalent to the overseas version of ‘Aicarglobal’. quotes, equivalent to the overseas version of ‘Auto Home’.”
“Through channeling on YouTube and Instagram, buying keywords in Google, etc., Aicarglobal has deposited more and more users, and currently 90% of our traffic comes from the platform, which is also gradually attracting the attention of overseas consumers concerned about China’s auto changes.” There are new cars on the market almost every week in China, and Aicar employee Huang Pengjun is responsible for updating Aicarglobal at any time and sharing information about new cars in China on the platform. He explained that a Swiss customer who recently placed an order and has been representing a European car brand since the 1990s came to Aicarglobal through Google, and almost “stepped” on the website to study Chinese cars. “According to the local market, we screened through the European Union to verify the models to match the recommendation, the customer more than 200,000 U.S. dollars down payment has been accounted for, is expected to ship the goods in mid- to late April.”
Since starting the business in April last year, Aicar’s team has grown from five to 11 people, with 80 percent of the business staff’s small language coverage. In the past year, Li Xuan half of the time in foreign countries “run”, he showed a thick album to the reporter, each page is a photo with local customers, the office of the bookcase, but also placed in the souvenirs from all over the world given by customers. On the day of the reporter’s interview, employees kept coming in to ask him to confirm the funding, booking and contract details, the next day, there will be containers sent out from the port of Ningbo, and it is expected that by the end of April, six cars will arrive at the port of Costa Rica Caldera.
“Last year, China’s used cars exported more than 400,000 units, an average of more than 40,000 units per month, Aicar accounted for less than 1%, the market is very prosperous.” Li Xuan frankly said that ten years ago he was in South America to develop the market, some customers are not even allowed to enter the door; now to talk about business in the local area, customers will come to pick up the plane, arrange a working meal, which is the back of the Chinese manufacturing, Chinese products with hardcore strength conquered the overseas market.
In the bookcase of Li Xuan, there is a piece of calligraphy with black characters on a red background – “Let the world love Chinese cars more”. He believes that the company’s markets in Africa and several countries in Central and South America are already relatively mature, but it still has a long way to go globally. “Our self-built Aicarglobal has completed the first step of information display and the second step of online inquiry, and in the future, we will strive to embed the payment system on the platform for online transactions, while perfecting offline deliveries, and continue to lay out overseas warehouses in the places where the customer sources are concentrated, so that it is as convenient for overseas customers to buy a car on the platform as it is for us to buy on Taobao domestically, and hopefully we can realize all of them in the next three years.”
Aicar is a window that reflects the good momentum of cross-border e-commerce industry development in Jianye District. Since last year, Jianye District, relying on the “financial + digital economy” dominant industrial advantages, cross-border e-commerce will be included in the new quality of productivity development of one of the seven new race track, a series of cross-border trade road thus opened –
July last year, Nanjing cross-border trade integrated service platform on-line operation, the first in the province to realize the facilitation of customs clearance at foreign ports and the collection of data on customs clearance in other places, becoming the first cross-regional cross-border e-commerce integrated service platform; to build a cross-border e-commerce industrial park in China’s Yangtze River Delta (Nanjing), the establishment of the Nanjing cross-border e-commerce industry service alliance; 2024 Amazon Global Store cross-border summit was successfully held, Amazon Nanjing Office This year, a number of cross-border e-commerce enterprises such as Shanghai Tak, Nanjing Chaohuan Trading Company, and Quanyi Overseas (Nanjing) Supply Chain Company have settled down in Jianye.
Openness never stops, and the world is wide open. The main person in charge of the Jianye District Business Bureau said that Jianye will continue to improve its service “hard power”, enhance the “hard support” of the comprehensive cross-border trade service platform, fully practice “buy global, sell global”, explore the demand for going to sea, and explore the “hard support” for the “hard support” of the cross-border trade service platform. The company will continue to improve its service “hard power”, enhance the “hard support” of the comprehensive cross-border trade service platform, fully practice “buy global, sell global”, explore the “optimal solution” to the needs of the sea, and drive the enterprises to realize better development in the opening up at a higher level.
