At a recent press conference in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi Province, Wang Hongjin, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Director of the Shanxi Provincial Department of Commerce, announced significant developments in the province’s consumer goods trade-in program. “As of October 15, our program has spurred car sales by 6.1 billion yuan and home appliances by 3 billion yuan. By the end of the year, we expect to drive consumption up by 30 billion yuan overall,” Wang stated.
The press conference, themed “Promoting High-Quality Development and Deepening Comprehensive Transformation,” was organized by the Publicity Department of the Shanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Shanxi Provincial Government’s Information Office.
This year, in April, Shanxi launched a work plan for consumer goods trade-in programs related to automobiles, home appliances, and home renovation products. “To date, we’ve earmarked 1.235 billion yuan in subsidies—820 million for car trade-ins and 231 million for home appliances,” Wang reported.
The province has formed a dedicated task force to enhance support for these trade-in initiatives, establishing a unified coordination mechanism to ensure smooth policy creation, implementation, supervision, and resource allocation. Six guidance groups have been set up to oversee the activities across the province’s 11 cities and transformation demonstration areas, providing comprehensive support in promoting the trade-in policies and resolving practical issues.
Additionally, multiple launch events have been organized throughout the province to support home appliances, automobiles, and electric bicycles. These events are supplemented by a wide range of promotional activities, leveraging television, social media, and posters to ignite interest during the high-consumption periods of the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day.
According to Liang Zhiyong, Deputy Director of the Shanxi Provincial Department of Commerce, there has been a strong public response, particularly for cars and home appliances. For car trade-ins, subsidies can go up to 20,000 yuan, with maximum allowances of 16,000 yuan for traditional fuel vehicles and 18,000 yuan for electric vehicles. “We’ve streamlined the approval process, reducing it from four levels to a single joint review, which significantly shortens the time it takes for subsidies to reach consumers,” he explained.
“Consumers can apply for car scrapping and trade-ins through the national platform and the provincial subsidy service platform. The system uses AI for image recognition, simplifying the application process for users,” Liang added.
As of October 15, Shanxi received 38,753 applications for vehicle scrapping, with 683 million yuan in subsidies already confirmed. For vehicle trade-ins, there were 9,751 applications, resulting in 137 million yuan in approved subsidies.
In terms of home appliances, the trade-in program has expanded to include 15 categories of products, beyond the national standard of eight, tailored to meet daily living needs and local market conditions. A brand information database is in place to mitigate risks by verifying product models and prices during transactions to prevent overpriced or counterfeit items from entering the market.
Furthermore, partnerships have been established with major e-commerce platforms like JD.com and Tmall, enhancing online sales channels, which have seen a growing trend, with 17.4% of home appliance transactions occurring online. By October 15, Shanxi’s home appliance trade-in initiative recorded over 255,800 transactions, totaling 231 million yuan in subsidies.
Looking ahead, Liang emphasized, “We plan to broaden the range of products eligible for trade-ins to meet diverse consumer needs and guide cities in optimizing the subsidy disbursement process. Our focus will be on expanding product categories, speeding up approvals, and enhancing service quality to ensure real benefits reach consumers swiftly.”
