Entering 2026, the used car market will show strong anti-cyclical resilience. Data from the China Automobile Dealers Association show that from January to May 2026, the cumulative transaction volume of used cars nationwide was 8.0948 million, a year-on-year increase of 2.3%, and the cumulative transaction amount was 531.373 billion yuan, achieving a rise against the trend against the background of periodic pressure on the new car market.

Since June, policies in the field of automobile circulation have been implemented intensively: the Ministry of Commerce and other nine departments jointly issued the "Notice on Several Measures to Cultivate and Expand Automobile Aftermarket Consumption", simultaneously announcing 40 pilot cities for automobile circulation and consumption reform, 8 of which focus on second-hand car circulation reform, breaking down circulation barriers in multiple dimensions. A series of measures directly target industry blockages, promote the used car market from regional decentralized transactions to a unified national market, and inject sustained impetus into activating automobile consumption throughout the life cycle and cultivating and strengthening the automobile aftermarket.

One certificate is accepted for all

Trading services are more worry-free

The improvement of circulation efficiency and simplification of procedures are intuitive changes in the expansion and improvement of the used car market in recent years. Relying on the opening up of government data and local exploration, integrated services have been achieved in multiple markets, which has solved the pain point of round-trip transactions in different places.

Zaozhuang City, Shandong Province, located in southern Shandong, is the forefront of the national used car circulation reform. In the early morning, in the Zhong 'an Used Motor Vehicle Trading Market, cars are neatly arranged, and the digital inquiry screen updates the national vehicle source information in real time. There are both batch purchase car dealers who come in and out of the country all year round, and ordinary consumers who come here on a special trip to select cars. Wang Lei, who lives in Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province, compared the car prices of the two places and drove for about two hours to buy a used family car. From data verification, car selection and bargaining to transfer transfer and number selection, and receiving temporary number plates, the entire process takes less than 40 minutes. "I used to hear that buying a used car in a different place would require you to go back to your place of origin and register it. I would have to go back and forth for two or three days and have to apply for a residence certificate. Now I can complete the entire process with an ID card, saving time and effort." Wang Lei said frankly that the price of the Zaozhuang car source of the same model is lower, and it is very cost-effective even when the travel expenses are included.

Standardize transactions and make vehicle conditions transparent, and continue to reshape consumer trust in the industry. At present, the domestic standardized used car trading market generally implements an electronic traceability mechanism for one vehicle and one code. Each vehicle on sale is equipped with a unique electronic file QR code. Scan the code to view standardized test reports. Some platforms can also simultaneously query vehicle maintenance records and Risk information, promoting transactions to be clearly priced and transparent. Zhai Lubing, a merchant who has been deeply involved in the automobile market for 18 years, has witnessed the transformation of the industry: "In the early years, information on used car transactions was opaque, and car conditions were all introduced orally. Buyers and sellers didn't trust each other. Nowadays, testing and transactions are standardized, the proportion of foreign merchants has increased significantly, and cross-regional transactions have become the norm."

The upgrading of government services is the core support for improving the quality of the industry. Starting from June 2026, the new policy of "one license for all" for the transfer registration of second-hand passenger cars will be fully implemented nationwide. Foreign residents can complete the transfer with their ID cards alone, without submitting residence certificates. Vehicle files will be transferred electronically throughout the entire process, truly realizing cross-provincial transactions "run once at most". For the used car export business, Zaozhuang innovatively created a "one thing" service scenario, integrating seven export-related approvals into one form, increasing approval efficiency by more than 80%, and significantly reducing corporate service costs.

For example, according to the general hedging rate of mainstream compact family cars, a hot-selling car with a landing price of 120,000 yuan sells for about 70,000 yuan after three years of use, which can save 50,000 yuan in car purchase expenses compared with purchasing a new car of the same class; According to the "Vehicle Purchase Tax Law of the People's Republic of China", vehicle purchase tax is levied on a one-time basis. Vehicles purchased with purchase tax will no longer be levied repeatedly. It can also save nearly 10,000 yuan in costs and add lower insurance and other vehicle costs to accurately adapt to the needs of the county's additional purchasers and young first-time purchasers.

Break down obstacles and flow smoothly

The national market is more integrated

The continued expansion of the domestic used car market has benefited from more than a decade of institutional loosening and systematic reforms at the national level, breaking down regional barriers and institutional obstacles at all levels, and continuing to release the vitality of the existing market.

my country's second-hand car circulation reform is step-by-step: In 2016, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Several Opinions on Promoting Convenient Trading of Second-hand Vehicles" to kick off the reform; in August 2022, the national fifth emission standard restrictions on the entry of small non-commercial second-hand vehicles will be lifted nationwide, and the "Restrictions on relocation" will be eliminated, and national convenience measures such as reverse invoicing and off-site transaction registration will be implemented simultaneously; The pilot reform of automobile circulation and consumption will be launched in January 2025 to accelerate the transformation of the industry from a brokerage model to a distribution model; after June 2026, the new market policy will further focus on the circulation of used cars, supporting 40 city pilots to build a solid institutional foundation.

Behind the continued loosening of policies is the solid support provided by the huge automobile stock market. According to the latest data from the Ministry of Commerce's press conference held by the State Council Information Office on June 23, the current number of cars in the country has reached 370 million, and car sales have ranked first in the world for 17 consecutive years, providing sufficient "vehicle source" for the expansion of the used car market. Reservoir. Luo Lei, vice president of China Automobile Dealers Association, told a reporter from China City Daily that with the acceleration of the new car replacement cycle and the upgrading of automobile consumption, a large number of existing vehicles have entered the circulation link. Coupled with the simplification of transaction processes and the optimization of the market environment, the cross-regional circulation trend of used cars has continued to be strengthened.

The local level will simultaneously follow up supporting policies to activate circulation vitality in an all-round way. Many places have fully implemented the requirements for lifting relocation restrictions, promoted measures such as "reverse invoicing" and "cross-provincial processing", built an information networking verification platform, improved the market credit system, and effectively revitalized vehicle sources across the country. The free flow of vehicle sources has broken down regional supply and demand barriers. High-quality vehicle sources in first-tier cities continue to sink into the county market, effectively alleviating the mismatch between regional supply and demand, and at the same time making room for new car replacement, forming an industry of "new car iteration-used car circulation-stock revitalization". Positive circulation.

Wang Haiyang, director of the Industrial Research Office of the Industry Development Research Department of China Automobile Information Technology (Tianjin) Co., Ltd., analyzed to a reporter from China City Daily that in the past ten years, the domestic used car industry has gradually bid farewell to the "small, scattered and weak" pattern and entered a new stage of large-scale and standardized development., cross-regional circulation rates continue to rise, which is essentially the accurate implementation of the construction of a unified national market in the field of automobile circulation. Wang Qing, deputy director of the Institute of Market Economics of the Development Research Center of the State Council, believes that information asymmetry is the biggest industry pain point for used car transactions. Continuously opening up vehicle maintenance, insurance, and accident data and cracking the "information black box" are key to boosting consumer confidence.

Business expansion

The value of the stock becomes more prominent

At present, new energy used cars have become a new engine for industry growth, and their growth rate continues to lead the overall market. Data from China Automobile Dealers Association shows that in 2025, the national new energy used car trading volume will reach 1.6 million, accounting for 7.9% of the total trading volume; in the first four months of 2026, the cumulative number of transactions was 547,900, a year-on-year increase of 29.1%, with strong growth momentum. Industry experts said that as the first batch of new energy vehicles enters the replacement cycle, the superimposed trade-in policy continues to be exerted, and the supply of used new energy vehicles continues to expand, becoming a preferred category for young consumers.

The construction of the standard system has been accelerated simultaneously, laying a solid foundation for the circulation of new energy used vehicles. In May 2026, China's first national standard for in-service power battery evaluation,"Specifications for Health and Safety Status Assessment of Pure Electric Vehicle Power Batteries", was officially implemented, providing a unified technical basis for battery health testing and residual value assessment, and filling the field. National standard gaps. Starting from July 1, two mandatory national standards,"Safety Requirements for Electric Vehicles" and "Safety Requirements for Power Batteries for Electric Vehicles", have been implemented to comprehensively upgrade safety thresholds such as vehicle high-voltage protection and battery thermal diffusion protection for newly produced models, raising the overall industry safety benchmark will also establish a higher safety reference system for new energy used vehicles that will subsequently enter circulation.

Deep integration of online and offline will reshape the industry transaction ecosystem. Digital transformation has broken the geographical restrictions of traditional used car transactions, and new models such as live car sales and online car selection have been rapidly popularized. According to data from the Car Understanding Platform, in 2025, 40% of used car transactions on the platform will be completed through the "national purchase" model. This new model of combining online customer acquisition, offline delivery, and wholesale and retail has greatly improved transaction efficiency and broadened the source channels of car dealers.

The used car export business has steadily expanded, opening up new space for international growth. Zaozhuang vehicles have been exported to more than 10 countries and regions such as Russia and United Arab Emirates. Some vehicle sources have radiated to the Central Asian market in compliance. As of the end of 2025, a total of 3178 units have been exported, initially establishing an industrial pattern of "buying the whole country and selling the world." Each export pilot area continues to optimize the full-process services of approval, customs declaration, and verification to reduce enterprise export costs.

Experts interviewed said that there is still much room for improvement in the current used car industry. Wang Qing suggested that we should continue to open up the vehicle data platform steadily, empower compliant third-party organizations to carry out testing and certification, and solve the problem of information asymmetry from the root cause. Lang Xuehong, deputy secretary-general of China Automobile Dealers Association, said that it is necessary to enrich the supply of used car finance, financial leasing and other products, lower the consumption threshold, and at the same time expand post-market scenarios such as car modification, camping, and maintenance, and promote the automobile industry from "single product sales" The transformation to "full life cycle services" continues to activate the trillion-yuan automobile stock consumer market.

Source: China City News, CCTV. com

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