Sales of luxury cars rise in a declining market
October 8, 2019 Category China News Round-up, Weekly
Sales of 10 premium brands, including BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Volvo and Lexus, have risen in a steeply declining Chinese market in which overall car sales have fallen 11% in the first eight months to 16.1 million units. While overall sales have shrunk in 14 of the past 15 months, rich consumers have been snapping up locally made premium models, helped by competitive pricing. “The relatively more resilient demand for premium cars is driven by China’s consumption upgrade,” said Toliver Ma, Auto Sector Analyst at brokerage Guotai Junan International. “Affluent consumers are still willing to spend, even as the economy has long been slowing.”
Sales of China-made BMW cars jumped 25.9% in the first half from the same period last year to 264,194 units, according to joint venture partner Brilliance China Automotive. This was primarily due to the contribution of the X3, a compact crossover SUV. Excluding the X3’s sales, first-half volumes grew only 1%. It is BMW’s sixth model produced in China since June last year. Similarly, sales at Beijing Benz, the joint venture of Germany’s Daimler and Beijing Automotive Industry, grew 11.9% to 282,000 units, largely due to outstanding sales of Mercedes-Benz A-Class cars.
Meanwhile, Volvo Cars, owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding, saw domestic sales in the year’s first seven months grow 12.3% from the same period last year, higher than the Swedish firm’s global sales growth of 10%, and accounting for up to a fifth of its worldwide total. “Since 2015, we have launched all the new generations of our cars in China, some of which are made locally,” said Agneta Jilden, Asia-Pacific Commercial Program Manager at Volvo Cars.
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