Not long ago, the State Council issued the Action Plan for Promoting Large scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Exchange, proposing tasks such as promoting the exchange of old for new automotive and household appliances, and promoting the exchange of new home decoration consumer goods.
After the implementation of the "Plan", various regions in the Yangtze River Delta immediately followed up with the implementation of the "old for new" subsidy campaign. Taking Wuxi as an example, the 2024 "the Taihu Lake Shopping Festival" Quality Life "Renewal" action recently launched a number of preferential policies, with 15% subsidy for home appliance renewal and 4500 yuan subsidy for a single household. From March 21st to May 31st, Nanjing Jiangbei New Area will provide a total subsidy of 10 million yuan for the "trade in" car purchase activity, with a subsidy of 4000 yuan per vehicle. Shanghai also implemented a new round of subsidies to promote the consumption of green and intelligent home appliances from March 30 to December 31, 2024, with 300 offline sales outlets participating in the first batch.
On March 28th, regarding the details of the "Plan", the reporter interviewed Mo Xin, Vice President of Tsinghua Suzhou Environmental Innovation Research Institute. He participated in the research and formulation of the "old for new" policy for automotive appliances in 2009.
Mo Xin stated that in the new round of exchanging old for new, the change is from "high quantity" to "high quality", and the challenge is to standardize the recycling system and break through key "bottlenecks".
Reporter: Where is the "new" in this round of trade in?
Moxin: The "old for new" campaign implemented in 2009 is in the stage of popularizing large durable goods among the public, with a focus on promoting popularization, especially in rural areas, with home appliances and cars going to the countryside. The core purpose is to expand domestic demand and promote consumption. Through the implementation of policies in those two years, the consumption volume was approximately 170 billion yuan.
This round of trade in is in the stage of upgrading the demand for durable goods, shifting from "having" to valuing "good or bad", and pursuing intelligence and greenness more; And the scope is broader, including not only traditional consumer goods such as automobiles and household appliances being exchanged for new, but also promoting the upgrading and renovation of industry equipment, construction and municipal infrastructure equipment, transportation equipment, old agricultural machinery, education and medical equipment, etc; In addition, the standards are higher, and this time, green, low-carbon, and intelligent will be used as the standards or targets for implementing subsidies.
Reporter: What was the effect of the previous round of trade in? What are the expectations for this round?
Mo Xin: First of all, the previous round of effect was to solve the popularization of large durable consumer goods, from this perspective, consumers have gained practical benefits.
Secondly, a group of home appliance enterprises represented by energy-saving products have been cultivated. Up to now, domestic home appliance enterprises are highly competitive in terms of product quality, energy conservation, and intelligence, and many brands have entered the international market.
This trade in will definitely promote the further upgrading of durable consumer goods. For consumers, household appliances that can barely be used at home may have exceeded their reasonable lifespan and pose safety risks, but they are hesitant about whether to replace them. If policies provide subsidies, they can switch to smarter and more energy-efficient new products as soon as possible, while improving their quality of life.
In addition, it is necessary to standardize the online recycling system for household appliances and cars, which is also a key "bottleneck" that needs to be overcome in this round of trade in.
Reporter: What are the specific key "bottlenecks"?