At 23, Shi Lingxi bought his first car last week.

He considered a Ford Focus and other models during months of shopping. But on Wednesday, Shi negotiated a 35,000-yuan discount that knocked about $5,000 off the price of a Nissan Blubird. He put the $20,000 sedan on a credit card his parents will help pay.

He doesn’t plan to drive it to work much — it’s too hard to find a parking spot — but he looks forward to the freedom his car represents: the ability to get out of the Chinese capital for weekend outings.

“I bought the car to expand the radius of my living,” said Shi, a human resources professional in Beijing.

There are millions like him in China. Personal car ownership is driving the million-vehicle-per-year growth in China’s auto industry and, for now, seven of eight are bought by first-time car buyers.

Economic growth and the corresponding boom in the auto industry in this nation of 1.3 billion people — and in the private passenger car market in particular — has attracted more than 100 global and domestic vehicle manufacturers to compete on the Chinese stage.

Nearly all of them — including General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC — plan to display their offerings, unveil new concepts and vie for consumers at Auto China 2008, the Chinese auto show that starts today.

“This is now the largest auto show in the world, by number of automakers,” Nick Reilly, President of GM Asia Pacific, told the Free Press on Saturday. “Where just two years ago Beijing was a relatively small, cramped show, now, you’re getting first-time showings. Unless it’s a major international show, you just don’t waste those. That’s really a sign it’s become a very important show.”

Growing and growing

China’s growth is in stark contrast with what is happening in North America, which in 2007 experienced its worst sales in 15 years and where U.S. automakers reported historic losses. In the last 10 years, China’s auto market has grown 500%.

“The dynamic we’re going to experience is different than anything we’ve experienced in any of our lifetimes,” said Jim Raymond, executive director of vehicle sales, service and marketing for GM’s Asia-Pacific region, which includes China.

And experts at the Automotive News China Conference in Beijing late last week forecast continuing annual increases of about 10% in the China market for decades to come.

“There has been a big shift in the world economy, powered by the populations and changed political direction in China, India and Russia and other locations geographically close to these three,” Reilly of GM said. “This is a shift in economic power that has decades or more to run.”

It’s estimated that there are between 43 million and 47 million vehicles on the road in China — about as many as there were on U.S. roads in 1947.

The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute reports that only about 33 of every 1,000 Chinese residents owns an automobile.

IBM Business Consulting puts that the number at 44 vehicles per 1,000, Frank O’Brien, executive vice president of Magna International Inc.’s Asia Pacific Region said.

That compares with a world average of about 120 automobiles for every 1,000, O’Brien said, and ownership rates above 800 for every 1,000 people in America.

He expects vehicle ownership to grow to 100 per every 1,000 people by 2015. Estimates for 2030 range from 178 to 269 per 1,000 people.

“More and more, people will join the automobile market as they migrate from two wheels,” GM’s Reilly said.

He sees bicyclists and rural families moving to small, basic vehicles; young professionals buying small sedans and luxury vehicles, and successful entrepreneurs fueling the rapidly expanding luxury market.

Already, wealth on the coast is beginning to percolate inland to the communities China considers to be its second- and third-tier cities — those with 5 million to 15 million residents — and even to its more rural areas.

Until now, most growth in personal wealth — and therefore automotive sales — has been in the largest cities closest to the coast. But as wages rise in those larger cities, some manufacturing jobs have moved inland.

GM China Group President and Managing Director Kevin Wale said that worldwide, the annual income that typically moves a household into the realm of car buying is $5,000, but in China, he said, it’s closer to $3,000. And experts say the average incomes in many of China’s mid-level cities is now approaching that level.

The Chinese economy already has exploded from a gross domestic product of about $1 trillion in 2000 to about $3.4 trillion last year. CSM Worldwide forecasts that it will grow to greater than $5 trillion by 2014.

And the expectations of Chinese consumers have changed, too.

Courting Chinese buyers

Just a year and a half ago, Hao Chen, 27, bought his first car, a practical vehicle. Now he is looking for a second, sportier and more comfortable car.

“Five or six years ago, 60% to 65% of car sales were to government fleet,” said Joseph Liu, executive vice president of GM China group. “Now, it is reversed. 60% to 65% of sales are to private buyers.”

And everyone is scrambling to win them over.

• GM, whose joint ventures were the first to sell more than 1 million vehicles in a year in China, will show 42 models in Beijing this year, including the new Buick Invicta concept car. The Invicta, which was unveiled Saturday, was designed jointly by engineers at the Warren Tech Center and the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center joint venture in Shanghai.

• Ford will have the largest stand in the history of the Beijing auto show, with 55 vehicles on nearly 60,000 square feet. On Saturday, the automaker revealed its next-generation Ford Fiesta five-door hatchback for the Asian audience.

• Chrysler’s chief executive officer, Robert Nardelli, said last week that the automaker is looking to create more partnerships in such rapidly growing markets as China. The automaker is expected to show 19 vehicles, including the Asian debuts of the Dodge Journey, the two-door Wrangler and a special edition 300C.

China’s domestic automakers will be out in force as well, with Chery Automobile — the nation’s largest domestic auto manufacturer — showing a full lineup of everything from subcompacts to an SUV.

BYD Auto Co. plans to unveil its own plug-in electric vehicle today, aiming for sale in 2010, the Wall Street Journal reported. Geely Automobile Co. says it plans to show several larger models with more luxurious styling.

Some experts said they have seen car buyers — who primarily pay in cash or cash equivalent — put off a car purchase as long as a year so they could get a vehicle more stylish, comfortable and luxurious than what they can afford today.

It’s a phenomenon that could benefit the more established companies, such as the Detroit automakers, who have long catered to demanding customers in competitive markets, rather than the domestics who have often catered to customers by offering lower prices — and commensurate quality.

As Chinese consumers become more discriminating, China’s domestic automakers will have to improve their quality or unwittingly give up their places in the market, analysts say.

“It is a market in which everyone wants to play,” GM’s Wale said. “It is the most important market in the world.”

Contact KATIE MERX at 313-222-8762 or kmerx@freepress.com.

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