Selling cars online is not quite so realistic in China for the moment, Ford China vice president Nigel Harris said at the Global Automotive Forum held in Chengdu on September 16-17 when asked about his opinion on Geely's move to sell cars through Chinese B2B web portal Alibaba, qichegongshe reported Tuesday.

Having four years of working experience in China, Nigel Harris said the automobile industry has more than 100 years of history and is facing many challenges now. It, however, is still developing in the most traditional franchise model that may continue to be used in the near future. Ford may start selling cars online in the future as well, but it would be a very big challenge. 

The reason Internet car sales has not been extensively promoted is that customers always want to have a close look at the new cars and to feel them, which is of course hard to do through the network. Chinese consumers would more like to experience new cars in person, after all, about 60% of them are first-time buyers. A sense of trust is thereby vital important in initial sales.

Speaking of evolution of the Internet, Nigel Harris said there are already a large number of Internet users in the world's largest auto market; the number has even exceeded that in U.S. and keeps increasing every month.

Many of our customers and clients have an even better understanding of our products than we do when looking for agents. The Internet obviously has significant influence on the business models of the global automobile industry, and the impact in China may be bigger than other places, said Nigel Harris.