Study Says Americans Would Consider Chinese and Indian Cars

By Stephen Williams.

NeyYork Times Blog

If China can build the Apple iPhone for American consumers, why not a desirable automobile?

According to a survey by AutoPacific, an automotive research firm in California, about 15 percent of new car buyers in the United States would consider a Chinese-built vehicle for their next purchase, even though they're not familiar with brands or specifications. About 11 percent said they'd look into buying a car made in India.

That's not too bad because the study also found that 16 percent of the research sample — about 32,000 buyers of new cars and trucks responded — would be interested in a Korean car, and Korean brands have been marketing and selling cars in the United States since the 1980s.

"As Hyundai and Kia have been on the American scene for decades now, it's surprising that consideration for Chinese and Indian brands, sight unseen, would be about as strong as it is for the Korean brands," said George Peterson, president of AutoPacific and author of the study. "However, with so many premium and high-tech nonautomotive products already being made in China and purchased by Americans, why not automobiles, too?"

Ratan Tata, the chairman of Tata Motors of India, has said that he planned to sell his Nano subcompact in Europe by 2011 and in the United States some time after that. The car has been the subject of much buzz, and, as reported in this blog earlier this month, the Nano has already passed European front- and side-impact crash tests.

Meanwhile, Automotive News reported in May that General Motors might become the first automaker to export Chinese cars to the United States, by 2011. G.M. is among the many international companies already involved in building cars for the Chinese domestic market.

AutoPacific's study indicated that many people who responded positively to Chinese and Indian cars own Korean and Japanese vehicles. And those people also said they rated reliability and durability above vehicle dynamics.