New insurance industry report shows car prices falling faster than spare parts prices.

On October 28, 2026, FAW Bestune launched a 5-door version of the mini electric car model Bestune Pony (Bon Dang Tieu Ma) in China. According to IT site Chi Gia, the car has a listed price from 4.49 thousand yuan, and the price after incentives is only from 3.99 thousand yuan (about 157 million VND). More than two years ago, when launched on May 28, 2024, the 3-door version of this car model had a starting price of 2.69 thousand yuan, according to Autohome.

Those prices appear amid a long price reduction race in the Chinese auto market. According to China Daily, in the first 5 months of 2026, there were 82 car models with listed price reductions, of which the new energy car group had an average reduction of 12.5%. For buyers, an electric car is increasingly accessible.

The good news is the battery, the bad news is the broken items

On August 13, 2026, the Automotive Technical Research Institute of Zhongbaoyan, a research unit of the Chinese insurance industry, published the 21st report on the ratio between spare parts prices and vehicle prices. The report surveys 100 gasoline car models and 100 new energy car models, with data collected until December 31, 2025. This is the index used by the insurance industry to calculate fees, according to China Economic Hammock.

The first part of the report is good news for electric vehicles. The repair burden index of the new energy vehicle group decreased by 13.92%, mainly thanks to lower battery prices. With 60 pure electric car models in the survey sample, the battery price is currently equal to an average of 44.17% of the car price, down from 49.59% in the previous period.

But in items that often need to be replaced after a collision, the trend is in the opposite direction. According to the report, among the 18 types of regular replacement parts for new energy vehicles, 12 types have increased in proportion to the vehicle price. The proportion of the car's exterior light cluster increased by 0.72 percentage points, to 9.74% of the car price, while the price of the front wheel increased by 8.25%, the highest increase among the surveyed accessories.

The trunk lid is equal to 7% of the car's price

One detail in the report is most notable. According to data cited by China Economics, among the 100 new energy car models surveyed, the model with the highest proportion in the trunk lid category is the Bestune Pony, with a trunk lid equal to 7.05% of the car's price. This model also leads in the front bumper category, with a rate of 3.76%, while the group average is only 1.05%.

It should be noted that high rates are not limited to low-cost cars. In the categories of headlights, rear bumpers and exterior light clusters, the leading model is the Audi Q4 e-tron, a luxury car model, with the ratio of exterior light clusters up to 22.78% of the car's price. But with a mini electric car costing several thousand yuan, each bumper or trunk lid is a huge amount of money compared to the amount the buyer spent.

The reason lies in the calculation method. The spare parts ratio is calculated by dividing the spare parts price by the vehicle price, so when the vehicle price decreases and the spare parts price remains static, the ratio will increase automatically. The report shows that 12 types of parts have increased rates, but only 8 types have increased prices. That gap can be understood as car prices falling faster than spare parts prices, exactly what is happening in the price reduction race.

The calculation for cheap car buyers needs to do more

The story of Chinese car parts also happened in Vietnam. According to the Business Forum newspaper, the Lynk & Co 09 worth VND 2,199 billion of Mr. Nguyen Tien Dung in Thai Nguyen was flooded on October 8, 2025. The genuine factory initially promised that the spare parts would arrive in about 20 to 30 days, but the car was only repaired and handed over on February 9, 2026, at a cost of more than 400 million VND, after the spare parts were transported quickly by air.

That case is not an exception. According to Tuoi Tre newspaper, the leader of a Chinese auto brand in Vietnam said that by December 2025, about half of the flooded cars of many brands at factories in Thai Nguyen had not been repaired because of lack of spare parts from the manufacturer. With the rapidly growing group of cheap cars in Vietnam, the price and waiting time of a genuine bumper, a light cluster or a trunk lid are numbers that buyers should ask the dealer at the same time as the rolling price.

Trung Bao Nghien's report shows that the price war has pulled down car prices, but not pulled down the prices of perishable items at the same pace. When car prices fall faster than parts prices, buyers of cheap cars can expect to pay a larger percentage of the car's price for each minor dent, and showroom savings can be eroded after a few repairs. Bestune Pony is one of the easiest electric cars to buy, and its trunk lid costs 7% of the whole car.