With growth in the Chinese passenger automotive market as a whole slowing down, the luxury automotive market has also started to lag. Leading luxury brands Audi and BMW both were only able to post very slight positive sales growth rates over the first half of the year, while growth rates for second-tier brands varied heavily, with Jaguar Land Rover, Lexus and Volvo all suffering declines in sales.
Audi, BMW (including Mini) and Mercedes-Benz remained the best-performing luxury automotive brands in terms of sales over the first half of the year. Jaguar Land Rover led the second-tier manufacturers, followed by Cadillac, Volvo, Lexus, Porsche, Infiniti and Citroën DS.
Sales of the German big three, Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, totaled 655,200 units, accounting for 74.5% of all luxury automobiles sold in the country from January to June of this year. Market shares for Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz were 31.1%, 24.6% and 18.8%, respectively.
The perennial leader in the luxury automotive market, a total of 273,853 Audi-branded vehicles were sold in the country from January to June of this year. That figure is only a slight 1.9% more than the amount sold over the last six months of last year. Specifically, this May marked the first month in over two years in which Audi failed to post a positive year-on-year sales growth rate. This trend continued into June, whose sales volume was 5.8% less than that of last June.
BMW also suffered negative year-on-year sales growth for the first time this May, with that trend also continuing into the following month. A total of 216,020 BMWs were sold in China over the first six months of the year, up a slight 2.5% from last year. By comparison, BMW’s global sales grew 7.8% over the same time period, due in large part to the resurging European market.
Mercedes-Benz managed to close the gap between it and its fellow German brands. A total of 165,321 Mercedes-Benz vehicles were sold in China from January to June, up 21.6% from the amount sold over the first six months of 2014. A total of 32,507 Mercedes-Benz vehicles were sold in the month of June alone, representing respectable year-on-year sales growth of 38.5%, far above the growth rates for the brand in the European and American markets.
Compared with the big three, the second tier of luxury automotive manufacturers reported much more varied results, with Jaguar Land Rover suffering noticeable sales decreases while Porsche and Infiniti posted major sale gains.
Jaguar Land Rover, which saw its global sales decrease a slight 0.5% over the first half of this year, suffered a major sales decline in China, where its sales fell a full 46% in June. A total of 45,446 Jaguar Land Rover vehicles were sold in the country over the first half of the year, down 27.3% from the previous year. Following this performance, China is no longer Jaguar Land Rover’s largest market.
Both Volvo and Lexus saw their sales decrease over the first half of the year fall a slight 1.2% and 7.8%, respectively.
By comparison, Porsche and Infiniti reported major positive sales growth. Porsche sold 29,355 vehicles in the country over the first six months of the year, accounting for a quarter of its total global sales and making the country its largest single market. While Porsche’s sales increased 48.4%, Infiniti also posted significant Chinese sales growth of 35.6%, selling a total of 18,921 vehicles in the country.
Cadillac also reported respectable sales growth of 14%, allowing it to surpass Volvo in the sales charts.
Newcomer Citroën DS has also managed to report a strong performance with 16,693 vehicles sold in China over the first six months of the year, allowing it to finish last part in the sales charts.
