The title of the world’s largest car market no longer belongs to the US. China’s booming economy managed to translate into considerably higher living standards for its citizens and, since it has over 1 billion of them, it was only natural that in terms of volume, the sales figures would overtake the United States at some point. Therefore, the battle between the top luxury brands moved in Asia as well and now, the most important item on the ‘to-do’ list of BMW seems to be claiming the crown of the luxury segment in China.
According to a new report from Automotive News Europe, BMW is currently in the lead, as it has been benefiting from double-digit increases in sales on a monthly basis. Over the course of November, the sales of BMW models went up by 12 percent to a total of 55,293 vehicles in China. In terms of percentages, Mercedes-Benz’s growth was even more impressive at 22 percent but in terms of volume, the Stuttgart-based manufacturer is still lagging behind with 50,813.
Audi sold even more cars than BMW last month in China but the four-ringed brand is lagging behind its rival because of poor results scored throughout the year since January as it had a bit of an issue with with its dealerships across the country. Speaking of year-to-date numbers, BMW managed to deliver 542,362 units so far, an increase of 15 percent compared to 2016. Conflict-striken Audi is down 2.8 percent so far with 528,706 units while Mercedes-Benz went up by 27 percent so far with 539,728 units delivered.
Therefore, there’s less than 3,000 cars in between the top two luxury brands and things are definitely heating up. BMW has recently announced talks with Great Wall Motors regarding opening a new joint-venture production facility in China, in order to keep up with the demand and therefore with the competition as well. Furthermore, the Bavarian brand is now rolling out a car-sharing program in Chengdu using the BMW i3 which could prove to be a winner in the long run, as the EV will be an important model coming 2019, when regulations for internal combustion engine cars with tighten even more.
