Shanghai auto show ignites consumer passion for car purchases

The 21st Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition, also known as Auto Shanghai 2025, has sparked a wave of excitement among car buyers, with crowds flocking to auto dealerships to purchase new vehicles.

The exhibition, which opened to the general public Sunday through May 2, saw a bustling scene at the booths of popular car brands and models.

"We have nearly 100 salespersons at our booth, and each of them is expected to secure dozens of orders a day," said an exhibitor.

Livestreaming has emerged as a powerful sales tool, with many exhibitors using the platform to directly sell vehicles to online viewers. Some visitors even traveled hundreds of kilometers just to see the latest models on display.

"I'm from Linyi City in Shandong Province. I particularly drove here just to see this car model," said a visitor.

For some, the excitement of the auto show led directly to purchases. A local resident surnamed Ge visited the offline showroom after attending the exhibition and quickly signed a car purchase contract.

"I'm trading in my old car, and with the subsidies from both the government and the carmaker, plus the various discounts at the auto show and shopping mall benefits like parking vouchers, it made my decision much easier," Ge explained.

Some foreign buyers even flew here to attend the show and purchase vehicles.

"I attend the Shanghai auto show for personal purchase of cars," said Fias, a customer from Oman.

The purchasing process for international buyers is streamlined as well.

"As an export company, we will handle the export process and paperwork, load the car onto an international shipping vessel, and deliver it to them," said Ji Pengfei, international business manager at a vehicle export company.

Many of the orders placed at the event are expected to translate into actual sales.

"Currently, about 50 percent of our orders are placed from the auto show," said Hua Peng, a sales manager of Chinese automaker XPENG.

Liu Qiushi, general manager of Shanghai Chuangpeng Automobile Sales and Service Company, said, "After the auto show, we usually complete a quarter of our annual sales within the first month."

In addition to the auto show excitement, malls are also offering a range of incentives to boost car sales. Vouchers for parking, dining, travel and even gold bars are being offered as part of promotional giveaways.

"We're offering up to 8,000 yuan (about 1,097 U.S. dollars) in subsidy for each new car purchase. From April to May, we expect to sell around 3,000 new energy vehicles across 21 brands, a 70-percent increase compared to the same period of last year," said Ding Zhongyun, general manager of the Shanghai Longemont Shopping Mall.

As Shanghai's May 5 Shopping Festival approaches, a wide variety of activities and promotional events are awaiting consumers, expected to further fuel the enthusiasm for car purchases.

Shanghai auto show ignites consumer passion for car purchases

World Energy Council Secretary General Angela Wilkinson has called for greater cooperation, as geopolitical tensions add uncertainty to the market, and praised China's efforts in prompting global energy resilience.

Speaking to China Global Television Network, she said she thinks although the current situation feels very acute, it is not as severe as it would have been maybe 20 years ago in terms of energy, because energy supply is becoming more diversified.

She emphasized that China's cooperation with other countries has helped strengthen energy security and overall sustainability.

"We've always talked about for 20 years the need to balance security, affordability and sustainability, The triangle or what we call the trilemma, right? And what we know now is that those trade-offs are real and they're getting sharper and they're shifting. So when we've come through two decades where people have really wanted to frame energy policy in terms of climate. And the need for clean and green power. But now we're talking about the need to have rebalancing world energy leadership, so China's cooperation with many other countries changes how those countries can balance security, affordability and sustainability," she said.

Wilkinson highlighted China's efforts to diversify its energy imports and build a new power system at remarkable speed and scale. She said China is not only managing its own system security but also considering how it can contribute to global stability.

"China has diversified the imports that it's make. It's built a new power system at speed and scale. And I think China manages the whole system security and it's looking at how does it contribute to the security of the world so that it can continue to grow and flourish. You can't grow and flourish in a world of war," she said.

Wilkinson used a vivid analogy to explain whether the current crisis would accelerate the transition to renewables or reinforce reliance on coal.

"New power systems and the existing energy system is the mosquito and the elephant. The current capacity of renewables is like the mosquito. The existing system is like the elephant, but the mosquito relies on the elephant for its blood. And it's going to for a long time. These are codependent systems. As the new power systems scale across the world, then we will see naturally a fall off or a shift in supplies," she said.

Wilkinson also expressed her concern over humanity.

She said that as an entire species, people have forgotten just how dependent they are on energy. And it is not just about technology or money or an industry or a commodity, but actually the modern foundation of all societies.

World Energy Council chief highlights China’s role in global energy resilience