Mercedez-Benz, Audi, BMW and other luxury carmakers have taken this year’s Chengdu Auto Show in southwestern Sichuan province by storm, investing heavily to debut a number of super sleek car models targeting China’s younger clientele.
Even though the number of visitors to this year’s auto show, the biggest in western China, is less than in previous years, the three German brands have all upped the ante, expanding their exhibition floor space and filling them with a range of state-of-the-art autos, as China’s luxury car market shows no sign of slowing.
Munich-based BMW had six new cars on show, including its latest 4 series coupe, a low-slung, aerodynamic, sporty fashion statement. The firm commanded an exhibition area of 3,210 square meters while Mercedez-Benz and Audi were not far behind with booths of almost 3,000 square meters.
The three marques are all neck to neck in the battle for market share. Mercedez-Benz, owned by Germany’s Daimler, sold 346,000 units in China in the first half, followed by BMW with 329,000 and Audi, a unit of Germany’s Volkswagen, with 302,000.
“Mercedez-Benz’s sales to the younger generation in China have quintupled over the past six years, and make up almost 20 percent of its overall sales volume,” Zhang Yan, executive vice president of Beijing Mercedez-Benz Sales Service, told Yicai Global.
As a result the Stuttgart-based firm is expanding its fleet of trendy car models for the younger generation. Most are available for between CNY300,000 (USD42,872) and CNY500,000.
The luxury car market has benefited from falling factory prices and also the rising consumption trend of replacing old vehicles with high-end cars, said Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the China Passenger Car Association.
Just over one million luxury cars were sold in the first half, up 1 percent year on year, while sales of ordinary passenger cars slumped 3 percent over the same period, according to the CPCA. Sales in the second quarter gained 29 percent year on year.
On The Periphery
Luxury car brands with less of a presence in China, such as US carmaker Ford’s Lincoln and the UK’s Jaguar Land Rover brand Jaguar Cars, also lined up new models at the car show.
“Lesser known luxury car brands face an uncertain future in China as their market share is not very large, they lack the brand power, have vague development strategies and other market-related factors", said Lang Xuehong, deputy secretary-general of the China Automobile Dealers Association.
Among the less mainstream brands, Lexus, under Japan’s Toyota Group, saw its China sales surge by 21.1 percent in June from the same period last year to 22,000, outselling competitors Guangqi Honda’s Acura, Nissan’s Infiniti and the US’ Cadillac.
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