In a recent study by the market research institute Ipsos, two out of three respondents say that they prefer their own car to public transport—twice as many as before the COVID-19 outbreak. At the end of February, Ipsos asked 1,620 Chinese citizens about their mobility preferences, and the fear of the coronavirus in changing their habits.

Private cars jumped from 3^rd to 1^st place in terms of preferred means of transport, while buses and metros lost ground to a similar extent. Individually driven two-wheelers, on the other hand, maintained second place. The consulting firm Kantar came to similar conclusions as the Ipsos study.

“Due to the epidemic, people will rethink how they move around in the future,” says a study on the consequences of the corona situation for the Chinese industry. This could increase the desire to buy a car.

One of the key findings of the Ipsos study: Two-thirds of all respondents who do not currently own a vehicle want to buy a car within six months. For three out of four first-time buyers, protection against infection is a key reason for their purchase intention. In the ranking of purchase arguments, health is thus clearly ahead of motives such as being family-friendly or flexibility.

According to studies, around 80% of all vehicles in the Chinese entry-level segment go to customers who are buying a car for the first time in their lives.

After a deep plunge in February, the Chinese car market is currently showing signs of recovery.

I expect the car business to reach last year’s level in early summer.

—Stephan Wöllenstein, CEO of Volkswagen Group China

Production has already restarted at 22 of 24 Volkswagen locations in China.

Volkswagen hopes that the JETTA brand, which Volkswagen launched on the Chinese market last year, has a particular opportunity. JETTA is targeted to young customers who are buying their own car for the first time. With almost 30,000 deliveries in the first three months, JETTA had the most successful launch of all new car brands in China.