"There are many people buying barbecue at night," said Chen Qiang, a pseudonym, "and I won't close the stall until four or five in the morning. "

As a barbecue stall owner, Chen Qiang drives his tricycle to the street next to a subway station in Beijing at 6 p.m. almost every night to start the day's business. This has been going on for seven years, and his experience of being "chased" by the city police every night has also continued for seven years.

Seven years on, Chen Qiang has developed the skill of "watching and listening" - he will always have his car keys in his car to make it easier for him to "sit up and go", and he will also look left and right from time to time while he is barbecuing. The barbecue from time to time to observe the left and right, to distinguish the identity of the people.

When Yiou Auto surprised Chen Qiang on the city management car model, color, license plate number as a matter of familiarity, he "hmph" a sound: "This do not know, but also out of what stall." Over time, he even remembered the figure of the city manager.

Roadside stalls/Yiou original

In the past few years, in order to ensure a clean and tidy city appearance, "stalls" has been the focus of the city management. Two years ago, there were about 20 stalls on Chen Qiang's street, but now there are only three left.

For stallholders like Chen Qiang, the days of "hide-and-seek" with city authorities seem to be coming to an end.

At the 2020 National People's Congress, National People's Congress deputy Yang Baoling proposed that, while regulating urban management, it is necessary to adapt to local conditions to unleash the maximum vitality of the "stall economy".

Early in June, the country's top officials in Shandong Province during a visit to the stalls called "the fireworks of the world, China's vitality," affirming the existence of the value of the stall economy. Since then, Xi'an, Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou, Jinan and many other cities have responded to the introduction of relevant documents to moderately loosen the "stalls" to stimulate urban vitality.

The term "stall economy" is rapidly rising in popularity, and even in some areas there are cases where city officials call vendors to come back to their stalls. At the same time, the "stall fever" has also given rise to a number of "stall" related to the new wind mouth. Among them, "stall car" has become one of the hottest wind mouth.

Producer / Euromonitor business analyst Zhang Nan

Because of the launch of "stall cars", the share prices of many car companies have soared. After nearly two years of downturn, the development of the car market seems to be changing due to the "stall".

01 "stall car" rise

In the "stall economy" was put forward, Wuling, JAC, Kaiyun, Dongfeng Xiaokang and other car companies have launched suitable for selling "stall car "

6,000 cars have been launched in the past few years, and they are the most popular in the world.

June 2, "Wuling special vehicles" WeChat public number released an article "Wuling wing open vending car - the regular main force of the stall economy! The article was published on WeChat public number, shouting the slogan "two wings of a key switch, open to sell goods, a good choice for small business". After the release of the article, its reading volume quickly climbed to 100,000 +, "Wuling stall car" has become a hot topic of discussion in the streets and alleys.

"Wuling's reaction is still relatively fast, which has a certain favorable effect on his brand communication." An industry insider analyzed to Yio Automobile.

By the "stall car" news, Wuling Automobile shares rose 126.13% intraday. So much so that Wuling Motors had to issue an official announcement that day to clear the relationship with the shareholding company Wuling Special Vehicle. But even so, its shares closed up 53.27%.

At present, Wuling Auto has launched window sealing vehicles, operating vehicles, electric logistics vehicles, ice cream trucks, vans, mobile catering trucks, refrigerated logistics vehicles and other types of models to meet the needs of some of the ground economy.

Besides the Wuling Rongguang, pictures of another "stall barbecue car" have been widely circulated on the Internet, which is a stall car based on a light electric pickup truck made by Kaiyun Automobile.

Kaiyun's "barbecue car" / KAIYUN AUTO official

Meanwhile, JAC, Geely, BAIC, Changan and other automakers have also responded quickly by launching their own "stall car". Unsurprisingly, the share prices of these companies have also risen sharply in the recent past.

02 New growth point in the car market?

Since 2018, the car market has continued to decline. Data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) shows that China's automobile production and sales in 2019 declined by 7.5% and 8.2% year-on-year, respectively, and the rate of decline expanded again compared with 2018. The downward trend for two consecutive years reflects the grim situation of the auto industry.

The "snowy" Chinese auto market is in dire need of new growth points. Therefore, when the "stall economy" is advocated at the national level, car companies reacted quickly as expected. And from the major car companies released news, the effect seems to be really good.

According to Wuling, in the Wuling "stall car" article released the next day, the Wuling Rongguang single-day orders have exceeded its May sales. 7 June, the Wuling automobile again released an official message, said that from the release of a single day orders of more than 1,000, the Wuling Rongguang vending car in just three days.

Wuling Rongguang "stall car" / Wuling Automobile official

And Kaiyun automobile related person in charge of the car said to Yio Automobile, they have also recently received a large number of barbecue store's telephone consulting, hope that Kaiyun's pickup trucks used as the operation of the vehicle of their stores. According to reports, the "stall car" heat, JAC, Changan and other car companies have recently seen a sharp rise in the number of telephone inquiries to buy a car.

On June 6, the "Beijing Consumption Season in Haidian" activity was officially launched in Wukesong? Huaxi Racer Plaza, where a customized version of the KAIYUN light electric pickup truck was unveiled, with the slogan "Night Market 2.0 must be technology-driven".

Kaiyun Chairman Wang Chao said the company is actively working with customers who buy their products *** with the launch of a "new type of stalls" - to allow consumers to abandon the past on their "dirty and poor" impression of eating stalls.

"Kaiyun will provide a variety of franchise programs for car buyers, equipped with food cold-chain delivery services to ensure that the path of delivery of food ingredients," said Wang Chao, "We also have cooperation with Shangtang Technology, in the stall car equipped with AI monitoring system to monitor the behavior of food producers. We can also ***share data with the government to ***share in creating 'digital stalls'."

"The sales of stall carts" have risen significantly, and the stall economy is gradually getting rid of its "dirty and messy" image. Everything seems to be moving in the right direction.

From the survey conducted by YEEO Auto, the "melon" stall owners are still the mainstream of the target users of "stall cars". How many users can really go to buy a car is still debatable.

03 To set up a stall, first buy a car?

Since June 6, the major official media began to sound, "stall economy" cooling. The Beijing Daily has made it clear that the stall economy is not suitable for Beijing. People's Daily wrote an article saying that the stall economy is heating up, but not feverish, and needs to be "orderly". The CCTV News said bluntly that "the result of the stall economy is to be dispersed."

"Two years ago, every day can earn two hundred it!" A vendor selling cell phone film and cell phone cases at the subway entrance told Euromobile. By the impact of e-commerce, economic factors, etc., his business in the past two years is not good, every night stall for six hours of profit is only about 50 yuan.

Talking about the "stall car", the vendor shook his head and said: "Too expensive, how many goods have to be sold to return to the capital?"

The ancient commercial behavior of stalls has a history of thousands of years in China. Fruits, snacks and daily necessities are the main products sold at the stalls, and suburban citizens, rural residents, students and other people are the main participants in this business. Most stall owners have low incomes and prefer to use bicycles, tricycles and electric cars to transport their goods.

For this group of people, the current 50,000 yuan or so "stall car" is still too expensive.

Traditional stalls / EVERYTHING ORIGINAL

Shanghai Automobile General Motors (SAIC-GM-Wuling) insiders told EVERYTHING that the orders for the Wuling Rongguang are mainly concentrated in Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, and Zhejiang. The sales of ground-level vehicles have certain geographical limitations.

Local government restrictions are another major problem. in early June, various districts in Beijing have issued no-go zones for pickup trucks. on June 5, Beijing city management made it clear that it would strengthen law enforcement inspections and deal with illegal stalls, road-occupying operations and other offenses disturbing the order of the cityscape and environment in accordance with the law.

Beyond Beijing, first- and second-tier cities such as Shenzhen, Shanghai and Tianjin have introduced different levels of restrictions on pickup trucks and vans. Even Chengdu, which was the first to relax restrictions on stalls, now has restrictions on trucks entering the city. Chengdu Traffic Management Bureau said that during the epidemic, "trucks into the city" was loosened, in addition to the morning peak from 7 to 9 o'clock, the rest of the time is not restricted, and in 2019, trucks need to have a "city permit" in order to enter the city.

The inability to freely enter the city greatly restricts the activities of traders. Wang Chao bluntly said, electric trucks into the city also need "operating license", Kaiyun has "operating license", but the process for individuals to apply for this kind of documents is very complicated. The current Chinese population is showing a trend of "from rural to urban, from low-tier cities to first-tier and second-tier cities".

"After buying a car, you still have to get a license plate and go through an annual review," the industry analysts said, adding that "traders won't trade in their cars unless they have to."

To set up a stall, buy a car first? Maybe! It's just that for most stallholders, they prefer to use bicycles or tricycles.

Industry insiders say the epidemic is getting better by the day, and in terms of the entire car market, even without the "stall economy", as the productivity of commercial vehicle sales will also rise to a certain extent, but the real development of the country's automotive industry plays a major role in passenger cars.

Producer / Euromonitor Automotive Business Analyst Zhang Nan

The "stall car" will only be one of the few personalized models in the overall car market. If we want to boost the car market as a whole, we need to find a way to stimulate demand for private cars.

This article was written by the author of AutoNation, and does not represent the views of AutoNation.