Introduction

The auto market has shifted from being youth-dominated to middle-aged-dominated.

"At first, the budget for buying a car was 300,000 yuan, then it dropped to 250,000 yuan."

When asked why she had settled on this price range, Li Yu—dressed in a pure white Ralph Lauren cotton knit shirt, a lightweight wool coat, a light blue COS scarf, and a black Celine monogram sheet-music handbag—gave a direct, blunt answer: "Just to show off."

After graduating last year and during her first few months of work, Li Yu and her boyfriend Ding Ye's desire to buy a car grew wildly. At their most obsessive, the two frequently shuttled between various mid-to-high-end 4S dealerships in Chongqing and Chengdu, not only learning about new car configurations but also gathering information on nearly-new second-hand cars through various channels. They even considered having two cars between them.

After working for more than a year, Li Yu has gained a more concrete sense of money. After several short-term rental car trips and calculating the costs of commuting, taking taxis, and buying and maintaining a car, the idea of buying one faded.

"I now think spending so much money on a car just to keep up appearances is unnecessary."

In mega-cities, rent and higher living costs also bring huge economic pressure, compounded by frequently congested roads, strict license plate restrictions, and uncertain future trends. For young people aged 25–30, buying and maintaining a car is simply a false proposition.

Looking downward, young people in third- and fourth-tier cities who marry and have children earlier do contribute some car purchase demand, but looking at the overall market, these contributions are truly limited. J.D. Power data shows that those born after 2000 account for only 9% of car purchases, and more than 70% are concentrated below 200,000 yuan, with cost-effective small cars around 100,000 yuan becoming a more reliable choice.

In car companies' narratives, young users—especially first-time buyers aged 25–35—are almost always the most frequently targeted group. Whether new forces, joint venture brands transitioning to electrification, or entirely new sub-brands launched by traditional automakers, all without exception have shouted youth-oriented slogans.

But the problem is that young people under enormous economic pressure are sharply reducing their willingness to buy cars, and even when they do buy, they focus more on the below-200,000-yuan market with thin profits.

01 Can't afford a car, and even less can afford to maintain one

"No concept of money." This is Li Yu's assessment of herself before starting work. In fact, even now, her sense of money is not particularly strong.

Not long ago, she rented a car for a short self-driving trip to western Sichuan, bringing three Ralph Lauren tops alone. An outfit casually displayed on WeChat Moments cost three to four times her monthly salary in total.

When she first started working, she wanted to buy a 300,000-yuan car, but with all kinds of fees added together, the final price exceeded her upper limit, so the price was capped at 250,000 yuan. "At that time, buying a car was just to show off. If I bought a car below 200,000 yuan, I thought I might as well not buy one, because it wouldn't be impressive enough."

The first two or three months of work were when Li Yu's car-buying urge was strongest.

On one hand, the school where Li Yu works is in the suburbs. To go home on weekends, she needs to walk a long distance to the station, then take a one-hour bus to the city center, and then take a 40–50 minute subway. Repeated like this, commuting alone costs 700 yuan per month, plus a lot of time.

On the other hand, most of her colleagues have similar backgrounds: locals from Sichuan, only children, with study-abroad experience and decent family conditions. Several colleagues who joined a few years earlier already drive new cars arranged by their families, including Audi Q5L, Mercedes-Benz C-Class Coupe, Li Auto and others. The comparison environment also greatly influenced Li Yu.

During that period, Li Yu spent almost all her spare time visiting 4S dealerships with her boyfriend, and when she had no time to go offline, she scrolled through various car introduction videos on her phone.

When they first started looking at cars, they went for the AITO M7's intelligent driving. After that, the two test-drove multiple models including the Xiaomi YU7, Luxeed R7 and Li Auto i6. Li Yu, who prioritizes appearance, was moved by the YU7, while Ding Ye, who focuses on practicality, thought the Luxeed R7 was an all-around fighter.

As she watched more videos, Li Yu even started looking at second-hand nearly-new cars. At their most obsessive, Li Yu and Ding Ye also planned to each buy a car, and several times, persuaded by salespeople, almost paid deposits.

Having worked in first-tier cities for many years, Lin Han in Shanghai and Xiao Nan in Beijing have no intention of buying cars. In the three or four years after graduation, both changed jobs multiple times, and the former even incurred small debts due to a long gap between jobs. In this situation, even supporting themselves requires careful budgeting, let alone buying and maintaining a car. Moreover, purchase restrictions and license plate lottery policies keep them outside the qualification for buying cars.

"We don't have much pressure, no pressure from housing either, so we increase our budget for cars, food, drink and entertainment. But if we were in Shanghai, it might be different. In Shanghai, we would also consider the Xingyuan. Just like when we were in the UK (studying abroad), we never thought about (buying a car), never took a taxi."

Li Yu admits that returning home and going out to make a living present completely different environments, and her mindset and purchasing power would also differ greatly. Recently, because they have been eating and drinking somewhat indulgently every day, their bigger worry is whether they will get diabetes.

Li Yu's college classmate Shen An, a Shanghai local with favorable family economic conditions, also previously entertained the idea of buying a car, but the city's congested traffic, frequent business trips, and the pressure and sense of constraint that come with parental funding shelved the plan.

Xiao Zhu, a Zhejiang native working in Shanghai, recently took over the family's old BMW from his father. But for this young man who has been working for less than two years, buying a car at this stage still means "first see if there's money, then maybe parents contribute a bit, and I add the rest."

Without the excessive expenses of mega-cities and first-tier cities, young people who have returned to their hometowns in third- and fourth-tier cities, in familiar and stable environments, have mostly already purchased their own cars or even homes under family arrangements.

When Xiao Cui got engaged last November, she had just turned 25. Before the engagement, with her parents' help, Xiao Cui bought a Leapmotor C11 for future convenience.

Almost at the same time, the author's childhood friend Xuanxuan in her hometown also began to gradually get her career started. It happened that the family's old Ford had an accident, so she also took the opportunity to buy an XPeng MONA M03 using her savings and parental funding.

It is not hard to see that environment has a huge impact on young people's car purchases. Young people in mega-cities and first-tier cities have higher requirements for vehicles, but their purchasing power is temporarily limited. Although lower-tier cities have the ability to buy vehicles, cost-effectiveness is an important consideration, mainly focused on entry-level models.

This also matches overall survey data. Data shows that based on urban population distribution, income/consumption levels and existing private car ownership, new cars are estimated to contribute 58% to overall sales, with new car sales sinking toward third-tier and lower cities (65%).

Meanwhile, according to J.D. Power data, although those born after 1995, accounting for 32%, remain the largest single age group of car buyers, those born after 2000 account for only 9% of purchases, and more than 70% are concentrated below 200,000 yuan.

02 Tightening belts to get by, no need to "show off" anymore

Economy and actual usage scenarios are the biggest considerations for young people when buying cars.

In interviews, it is easy to find that both the one-time purchase cost and the daily cost of using and maintaining a car greatly affect young people's car-buying decisions.

For example, Li Yu seriously considered the Xiaomi YU7, but at that time she had already missed the window for purchase tax exemption on new energy vehicles. "At that time, a standard version plus one color, with nothing else added, cost 280,000 yuan to get, much more expensive than the first batch of owners. The first batch bought it for about 20,000 yuan less, so I felt it was too unfair."

Although young people like Li Yu who pursue high quality have a higher tolerance for prices, they also have particularly sensitive trigger points: for the same product, their price cannot be higher than what others paid. Just as Li Yu mostly buys branded clothing only at outlets and through daigou rather than at more expensive specialty stores, for the same model, she also hopes to enjoy the same price as other owners.

The new car price was not suitable, so Li Yu turned to nearly-new second-hand cars, but subsequent usage and maintenance costs became another obstacle.

"After you start working, you realize money is hard to earn, and later you realize the cost-effectiveness of buying a car is too low." After working for a year, Li Yu and Ding Ye's desire to buy a car gradually faded. Without checking any information, the two calculated the post-purchase costs they knew by heart: "Parking here is 5,000 yuan a year, insurance is 6,000 yuan a year, electricity is the cheapest, maintenance can be free for two years, but still costs more than 1,000 yuan a year, (total) more than 10,000 yuan a year."

Not long after starting work, Chongqing launched convenient buses, greatly reducing Li Yu's weekend travel time, and commuting costs fell to about 400 yuan per month.

In addition, several low-cost, high-quality car rental experiences also strengthened their resolve not to buy a car. It is understood that since the beginning of this year, Ding Ye has rented cars four times: the first was a short-term rental of a Nissan NX8 locally in Chongqing, with an average daily rental cost of more than 200 yuan; the second was a Deepal S07 rented in Chengdu at an average of 190 yuan per day; the third was an XPeng G7 at an average daily rental cost of more than 200 yuan; and the fourth, thanks to a coupon for renting five days and getting two free, the XPeng G7's average daily rental cost was only more than 100 yuan.

More convenient transportation plus not-too-expensive car rental and taxi costs have made car ownership unnecessary. "I now think spending so much money on a car just to keep up appearances is unnecessary," Li Yu said. "I will buy a car when I get married, but that's too far away, and I haven't considered it now."

In Shanghai, Xiao Zhu, who drives to and from work, is also not a potential car owner. Not long ago, Xiao Zhu's father, a fan of domestic new energy vehicles, bought a Ledao out of economic considerations, and the BMW X3 he had driven for years naturally passed to Xiao Zhu.

"The place where I live and the roads I take to work happen to have no driving restrictions. I also evaluated the feasibility of commuting, including cost comparisons." Xiao Zhu calculated carefully that he previously basically took taxis to commute every day, costing about 110 yuan, but sometimes due to insufficient capacity during morning and evening rush hours, he could not get a taxi, and might even be late for work.

After driving to commute, residential parking is 20 yuan a day, company parking is 56 yuan, and round-trip fuel costs 30 yuan per day, which works out to roughly the same as daily taxi expenses.

Although the car will likely be scrapped after a few years, Xiao Zhu has no intention of switching to a new energy vehicle. "Domestic new forces are too focused on marketing to a single group. The old BMW 3 Series appealed to all ages, using the product to attract customers with a common language. Now, the XPeng MONA series and AITO M9 are clearly polarized, marketing to specific groups, which is a product of the involution environment. A car should not be a product aimed at a single (group). Just like a person buys an XPeng at 25 and drives it for 5 years, the car is still in its prime, but defined by single-product logic, it will soon become outdated."

In lower-tier cities, the demand for practicality and economy in car purchases is even more prominent.

On one hand, young people in third- and fourth-tier cities bear less pressure. "Come back and I'll buy you a car and a house." This is what most parents say to persuade their children to return home to work.

Under lower living costs, relying on resources accumulated by elders, young people aged 25–30 have more ample funds to buy cars. Car maintenance costs are also lower, parking fees can basically be ignored, home charging piles can be used for charging, and commercial charging piles are priced below 0.7 yuan, so only charging, maintenance and insurance need to be considered.

On the other hand, public transportation convenience in lower-tier cities is lower, and private cars are a necessary means of travel and an important part of socializing.

Although some families will take out loans to buy high-end models above 200,000 yuan to save young people's face, more young people still buy practical models below 150,000 yuan with family support.

Yiche terminal sales data shows that in the first half of the year, the top three models by sales in first-tier cities were Model Y, Xiaomi YU7 and Li Auto i6; in second-tier cities they were Xingyuan, Model Y and Li Auto i6; while in third- and fourth-tier cities they were all Xingyuan, Sylphy and Lavida, and in fifth-tier cities they were Xingyuan, Sylphy and Changan CS75PLUS.

Although young car buyers are mainly concentrated in low-end models, new forces, traditional automakers, and joint venture brands almost all regard young people as their most important target to capture — and the youth-oriented track is now crowded with brands.

However, the reality is that middle-aged trade-in users actually have more consumption potential. Data shows that the current market has shifted from being youth-dominated in 2020 (accounting for 45%–50%) to being middle-aged-dominated today (accounting for 55%).

According to the "Auto Industry Young Women's Car Market Insight Report (2026 Edition)" released by Tengyi Research Institute in April, from 2020 to 2025, sales contributed by the youth car market across the three age groups under 24, 25–29, and 30–34 all continued to decline, with terminal sales falling from more than 10 million vehicles to 7 million vehicles — a drop of nearly 33.5%. Yet in 2025 the domestic auto market remained resilient, with automobile production and sales growing by 10.4% and 9.4% year-on-year respectively.

Comparing the two sets of data, it is easy to see that auto sales contributed by young user groups are rapidly shrinking.

Since the beginning of this year, the auto market has contracted. From January to September, cumulative retail sales of passenger cars nationwide were 13.334 million, down 21.7% year-on-year, with a sales profit margin of 1.4%. In such a brutal market, it is increasingly unrealistic to carve out an opening through a youth-oriented route and young user supporters.

Young first-time buyers are more suitable as an entry point for brand promotion. Focusing on first-time buyers aged 25–35 and making products increasingly niche makes it difficult to support the foundation of sales and profits. Using young people to achieve brand voice penetration while directing resources and product focus toward middle-aged trade-in groups is more in line with the current market and more sustainable in the long term.

Responsible editor: Cao Jiadong Editor: He Zengrong

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