BMW, Daimler, Audi Quarterly China Sales Skyrocket

German Automakers Relying On China Market To Escape Lingering Grip Of Recession Spurred on by consumer incentives or enticed by special China-only elongated models, Chinese car buyers have buoyed sales of Europe's top marques and helped them escape the worst grips of the global economic downturn. This year alone, Chinese car buyers have gone far beyond projections, with BMW selling over 44,000 vehicles in the first quarter alone. (46,619 cars were sold by the BMW group, which includes MINI and Rolls-Royce, as a whole in China.) This is more than double BMW's figures from the first quarter of 2009, when BMW sold 16,580 cars in China, which itself was an improvement over 14,574 units a year earlier. In addition to BMW's solid popularity among younger businesspeople and new elongated models, the BMW group's broader success in China so far this year also owes something to a strong promotional push by Rolls-Royce last year and MINI's more direct China-focused marketing strategy. Look for MINI to increase its presence in China this year even further as field-testing on the new MINI E electric picks up in China. But BMW is far from being the only carmaker to see impressive growth in the first quarter of this year. Rival Mercedes-Benz sold an impressive 35,400 vehicles in the same time period -- over three times more than the 11,800 units sold in China in Q1 2009.The company is on target to handily top its 2009 sales figures, which themselves were the company's best-ever in China. Audi, one of the "early adopters" that has benefited greatly from its China presence, continues to dominate in the China luxury auto market, although it must be said that companies like BMW and Mercedes-Benz are catching up quickly, partly because of their intensive localization efforts. Audi reported 71,055 cars sold in the first quarter of 2010 in China, a 73% rise on the year before. While it looks like Audi will retain its dominant position for the short- to medium-term, mainly as a result of the proclivity for Audi sedans as government vehicles, we might see the winds shift in favor of its rivals. After all, Volvo is now Chinese-owned, and we might start to see government fleets made up of Volvos before too long. Additionally, Audi's reliance on past success and its long history in China to sustain strong sales might be perceived as stodgy to many Chinese car buyers, particularly those under the age of 40, which will likely benefit localization-focused companies like BMW and -- believe it or not -- Buick.

BMW, Daimler, Audi Quarterly China Sales Skyrocket

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Published May 05, 2010

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BMW, Daimler, Audi Quarterly China Sales Skyrocket