Well, it seems that the Chinese like clean cars just like we Americans do, and all the cars they are buying from the corporate car wash sector don’t seem to measure up. There are all kinds of problems, like energy, the cost of land, and the use of water. So where are the 470 million of China’s middle class going to wash their cars? That is, once they buy a car. In China, the middle class means around $ 1,200 a year in profit or around $ 3 (USD) a day and the cost of a car wash could not reach more than a tenth of what you get here.
Well then, we must also realize that labor costs are also one-tenth. So is it feasible, is there room for hundreds of thousands of car washes? Perhaps not in Shanghai, Beijing, or some of the other densely populated cities, but the mobile car wash could certainly work and employ large numbers of Chinese as well.
What about mobile car wash operations on mopeds, tricycles, carts and other variations depending on the exact location? Would it work well? How about larger units for larger industrial areas where buses, trucks, airplanes, marine equipment, agricultural equipment, construction equipment, new cars, railways, etc. would be washed? Is this a viable business model?
My answer is YES, yes it is.
Simply put, a smart entrepreneur, not based in the United States, but a Chinese entrepreneur, could produce mobile car wash carts that operators were pushing. In this way the cost would be low, since we must remember that the cost of a car is $ 2500 to $ 4000 and the cost of washing would be a tenth of the basic (mobile) wash here of $ 5-7 USD, so They’re talking about $ .50 – $ .70 per car wash, but it’s still doable.
That is, “if” the washer kept 33% and was charged a fair rental rate, the dealer with 25-50 cars would make a very good amount of money. The royalties collected could be substantial, but you would have to be a local businessman, not a US-based franchisor. After all, since the Chinese are excellent imitators, they would simply copy the business model, and the American franchisor would never see a penny.
The franchisor couldn’t trust that market or maintain ownership rights to the business model and still get paid, so they would have to get paid up front, but I don’t see how anyone would pay $ 100,000 to $ 500,000 for Upfront they could copy and steal, and even if their limited knowledge of the copy was wrong, in their minds they would be a canny business person by misleading the US-based franchisor.
Meanwhile, others would copy them and put them at a disadvantage by stealing the concept and competing directly with them, while paying us. As the founder of the world’s largest mobile car wash franchise company, those are my thoughts.