中国汽车配件博览会开幕

The 14th China international expo for auto electronics, accessories, tuning and care products opened at the China International Exhibition Center yesterday. More than 200 thousand car accessory products, ranging from GPS devices, car audio-visual systems to seat covers and care products, are now on display.

Over 18 thousand innovations premiered at the expo. One of them is a stretchable car garage. You can drive your car onto a board fixed on the floor, push the button on a key-sized remote, then a wind and water proof mantle will rise upwards and stretch from the front to cover your car.

The product's exhibitor, Mr. Zhu said the product has great practical value for certain groups of car owners.

"Our product is aimed at car owners who have open-air personal parking slots, yet they try to protect their cars from harmful weather such as sandstorms, which are commonly seen in northeastern China."

It is said that the mantle can fend off wind, sand and water erosion effectively. Mr. Zhu says the garage is powered by solar energy and is convenient to disassemble. Each set costs around 20 thousand to 30 thousand yuan.

Another eye-catching exhibit involves a red Volkswagen beetle which has its car seats, steering wheel and rear view mirror, all wrapped up in colorful spotty covers with lace decoration. The exhibitor, Mr. Huang introduces the company's seat cover products.

"The cover can be easily changed at your pleasure. It gives you a more pleasant driving experience by dressing up your vehicle on the inside."

Mr. Huang says there is now a strong need for individually designed products among automotive customers, so instead of focusing on the quality of the seat covers, the company is now providing personalized customization services to let customers design the covers for themselves. It costs 2000 to 3000 yuan to make your own set of bespoke seat covers.

Industry insiders say that demand for personalized car accessories is increasing as China's auto market expands rapidly and the car culture continues to mature. The rapid expansion of the industry in general has largely benefited the expansion of China's automotive aftermarket.

Xie Yu is manager of the expo host Yasn International.

"This year could be a turning point for China's car accessory industry. What we have seen in the past few years is merely a quantitative change in the market. It's qualitative change that we are expecting this year."

China's automotive aftermarket revenue has already reached more than 4.3 trillion yuan, will hopefully hit 5.5 trillion yuan this year, and grow to 7 trillion by 2016. Industry insiders also expect that more Chinese auto accessories companies with independent intellectual property rights will rise as the market continues to boom.

For CRI, I'm Wang Wei.