Luxury Marques Burst Ahead in 2011

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The Chinese auto market may have crawled along at 2.45% in 2011, but luxury auto brands did not feel a slow down at all. The Chinese luxury car market surged ahead with several brands showing 30% growth or more, which shows that there is still a massive demand for premium or luxury brands in China – and with plenty of room to grow.

Audi’s 2011 sales results were just over 300,000 units – a new record for the four ringed German company, growth within the first eight months of 2011 was 37.4% greater than the same period in 2010 which has set Audi on a goal to sell 1 million cars in the next three years.

Audi introduced the A1 and A7 Sportback into the Chinese market in late 2011 and expects them to perform well in 2012, in addition Audi will launched a new Audi A8 in China also the R8 Spyder, a further 6 models will reach the Chinese market bringing total models to 12 new cars in 2012. JD Power results also indicate that Audi consumers are also the happiest car owners in the Chinese market.  In 2012 Audi will introduce the new Audi A6L as a locally made product and will also introduce the imported Q3 as well as Q5 hybrid and also RS sports models.

BMW’s 2011 sales were the German company’s best ever. Sales on the mainland reached over 230,000 units which was an increase of 37.6% with BMW branded models accounted for over 210,000 (an increase of 37%), MINI also sold 15,518 cars which was an increase of 47.7%. For BMW, China became its third biggest market.

Chinese car dealerships run on a 4S principle, the four S’s standing for Sales, Service, Survey and Spare Parts but BMW have introduced a 5S service – which includes Sustainability. BMW are aiming to trade off their high standard of service in 2012 by bringing more people into the BMW fold on account of their strong after service. Future flagship 5S stores will come with 22,000 square meters of land which will be used in repair, maintenance, and of course sales, the new 5S stores will come equipped with their own power generation equipment including solar power, wind power and other clean energy sources.

2011 was a good year for Geely owned Volvo, in nearly all of its markets Volvo so good growth, by 2020 the company aims to be selling 800,000 cars per year. In 2011 Volvo sold 449,300 cars world wide an increase of 20.3% over 2010, although Chinese sales reached a new high of 47,510 units Volvo is still obviously trailing behind its competitors, interestingly this made China Volvo’s third biggest market. The best selling vehicles in the Chinese market where the new S60 sedan and also the XC60 Crossover.

In 2012 Volvo will launch multiple new products in the Chinese market, the new V40 will make a splash in the first half and on the international scene Volvo will launch a plugin diesel hybrid as well as a plugin XC60.

Whilst not quite a luxury brand, the French marque Renault is widely regarded as being so in the Chinese market due to their rarity. Renault sales in December 2011 reached a new high of 3260 units which helped boost their end of year sales to 24,275 units – an increase of 65% over previous years. In 2012 Renault will expand its dealership networks to 80 dealers which will likely increase sales further.

Jaguar Land Rover also saw a record year in 2011, by the end of 2011 they had combined sales of 42,063 units, an increase of 61% over 2010. Jaguar’s sales jumped by 123% to 5976 units sold with Decembers sales reaching an impressive 945 units alone. Land Rover sold the majority of models with 36,087 units being cleared from dealer lots – an increase of 54%.