(Yicai) Sept. 5 -- Many express delivery firms in China are increasingly buying unmanned autos after multiple price discounts launched by manufacturers, marking the start of a new mass deployment phase of such vehicles in the country.

Chinese couriers got around 15,000 last-mile self-driving delivery vans in the seven months ended July 31, with over 60 percent delivered after prices tumbled in the second quarter of this year, according to data from industry research platform Tongqu Youdao.

The cost of an unmanned delivery van was about CNY200,000 (USD28,000) at the start of last year, including a five-year autonomous driving technology service fee, Li Li, a person in charge of a courier outlet, told Yicai. The price dropped to between CNY130,000 and CNY140,000 at the start of this year, and even to CNY100,000 more recently, he added.

"Manufacturers also use various subsidies or preferential policies to indirectly lower prices," Li noted, adding that after delivery vehicle and related service prices fell, his outlet began buying more and more. "We had 14 unmanned vans last year, but the number has since increased to 35."

J&T Express plans to add 3,000 new self-driving vehicles this year, having already deployed 900 units, an insider at the courier said to Yicai. The firm owned only 218 such vans at the end of last year, the person pointed out.

ZTO Express uses more than 2,000 autonomous vehicles at over 700 outlets in more than 200 cities, while it had just over 350 units at the end of last November, an insider from the company said.

The unmanned vehicle market pursues large-scale operations, according to Li. "The more manufacturers sell, the more data they can collect, benefiting subsequent product iteration, which is also one of the reasons why they launch discounts."

Autonomous vehicle makers cut prices this year also because this is the most direct way to expand the market, which will help startups obtain higher valuations during fundraisers, an industry insider told Yicai.

Several leading manufacturers completed fundraisers in the first half of this year. Neolix bagged CNY1 billion (USD140 million) in a Series C+ financing round in February before completing another round led by Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing last month, 9Sixty raised almost USD100 million in a Series A round in February last year and nearly USD300 million in a Series B round this April, and Rhino.ai closed a CNY200 million (USD28 million) Series B round in May.

In addition, the sales jump has led to a drop in the production cost of self-driving delivery vans makers and key parts suppliers, the industry insider noted. Manufacturers hope to expand the business cycle by "gaining scale through price cuts, thereby reducing unit costs."

As prices decline, the unmanned vehicle market is also undergoing segmentation, a manager at Neolix said to Yicai. For price-sensitive customers, manufacturers have adopted more appropriate service fee collection methods, such as monthly billing, in addition to price cuts to ease financial pressure, the person added.

Mid- to high-end customers are more concerned about self-driving delivery vans' operational efficiency and stability, as well as reliable technical support and after-sales guarantees, the manager pointed out, adding that manufacturers will focus more on meeting such needs.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev