Gasgoo tabulates the July sales data of major luxury vehicle brands in China as below. Apart from Jaguar Land Rover and Acura, the other brands on the list all achieved year-on-year sales growth. Audi surpassed Mercedes-Benz and BMW, taking the sales crown for the first time so far this year. Lexus created a surprise, outperforming Cadillac with a year-on-year jump of 37.5%.
The complicated auto tariff policy climate may be the biggest external factor that impacted overall luxury vehicle sales performances. The policy to cut import tariff on auto products from 25% to 15% has officially come into effect from July 1. However, on July 6, the U.S. government decided to impose 25% tariff on $34 billion worth of China-made products. Under such circumstance, some brands, such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW, who have part of products made in the U.S., were somewhat negatively influenced in sales. Besides, Lexus enjoys the pure tariff goodies without worrying about the China-U.S. dispute.
Audi
Audi delivered 53,191 vehicles last month in Mainland China and HK with a year-on-year growth of 3.8%, surpassing Mercedes-Benz and BMW by monthly sales. It seems that the tariff reduction seldom influenced Audi's China sales thanks to its large degree of production localization.
In July, the sales of the A4L reached 12,985 units, surging 33.3% from a year ago. The sales of other two sedan models, namely, the Audi A3 and the A6L got a pleasant number in China. Audi's SUV deliveries were somewhat tepid with the July sales of the new Audi Q5L and the Audi Q5 totaling 9,078 units.
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz lost the championship in July, while still saw its sales climb 8.3% year on year to 52,616 units in China. Thanks to the outstanding sales performance of the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, E-Class and GLC-Class, the German luxury vehicle automaker had been staying ahead of other automakers for the first six months.
However, Mercedes-Benz is facing rather fierce competition in the second half of 2018 after being outnumbered by Audi. Although the U.S.-made Mercedes-Benz GLE and the GLS were not the sales driver in China, U.S.-China trade tensions will inevitably exert pressure on the automaker.
BMW
The lower-than-expected sales of the locally-produce BMW X3 quenched the rising momentum of this growth engine. The hybrid versions of the BMW X1 and the 5 Series still saw evident sales increase, while they are unable to evoke substantial growth due to NEV's relatively small sales quantity.
Compared with Mercedes-Benz, BMW has more cars made in the U.S., thus the sales of the U.S.-made BMW X5 and X6 will be affected by the escalating U.S.-China tariff dispute.
Lexus
Lexus, which had long been following Cadillac and Jaguar Land Rover, must be a dark horse in China's luxury vehicle market last month. It surpassed Cadillac, Jaguar Land Rover and Volvo with its July sales jumping 37.5% over the year-ago period to 15,201 units from 9,238 units in June.
The sales growth could be attributed to the tariff cut policy and superior reputation it has earned in China. In the second half of this year, Lexus might keep the blooming sales momentum due to the price drop of the existing Lexus ES following the launching of the new ES and the introduction of the Lexus UX compact SUV.
Cadillac
Cadillac had been the sales champion among the so called second-tier luxury vehicle makers for the first six months. Although it was overtaken by Lexus in July, Cadillac still achieved apparent year-on-year growth in both July sales and Jan-July sales. The sales of the XT5, CT6 and the ATL-S all maintained favorable performance from previous months.
The Cadillac XT4 hit the China's market on August 29, which is expected to further drive the company's overall sales growth in China.
Jaguar Land Rover
Jaguar Land Rover is one of the two brands on the list who saw year-on-year drop in July sales. According to official sales figure, the sales of the Discovery Sport and the Range Rover Evoque slumped 26.5% and 40.5% respectively from a year ago.
The locally-produced Jaguar E-PACE went on sale on August 29. Besides, the Jaguar I-PACE will enter the market before 2018 ends as well. However, it may be hard for the new model to significantly improve the overall sales considering the Jaguar's comparatively small percentage in total sales volume.
Volvo
Volvo's sales in China, its largest individual market, increased by 9.2% last month mainly thanks to the popularity of the locally produced XC60 and S90 models. Total sales for the month amounted to 10,121 cars.
However, there might be less chance for Volvo to gain a big sales growth in the second half of the year by reason of lacking affordable new models.
Lincoln
Lincoln saw its sales growth rate fall to 2.1% from 12% in June. Under the pressure of tariff increase, the U.S. vehicle brand decided to raise the prices of two Lincoln Navigator models starting from September.
Infiniti
Although Infiniti already has vehicles locally manufactured in China, its sales only reached 2,071 units in July, sharing a different fate from another Japanese brand Lexus, who only sells imported vehicles in China.
The all-new Infiniti QX50 formally went on sale in Shanghai on June 10. However, the China-made model seemingly failed to boost Infiniti's overall sales in this country with only 1,023 units delivered last month.
Acura
Acura continued its marginalized presence in China with a year-on-year sales slump of 42.4% last month. The continuous sales depression leaves Acura a big problem how to get rebirth in the world's largest auto market.
