Summary: Luxury manufacturers' Chinese sales performance for January to May

The Chinese luxury automobile market experienced very significant sales growth from January to May. Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz have all reported sales growth rates in the double digits. Second-tier manufacturers in the segment have achieved even better growth rates, with Cadillac and Infiniti reporting especially high rates.

Among the top tier manufacturers in the segment, Audi led the pack with a year-on-year growth rate of 18.6 percent for the period of time between January and May. The German manufacturer's sales increased from the 183,700 units sold in the first five months of 2013 to the 217,900 units sold over the first five months of this year.

Although Audi is still leading the market, rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz are quickly catching up. Chinese sales of BMWs and Minis increased 24.6 percent from 148,300 units to 184,800 units from January to May of 2013 to January to May of 2014. While Mercedes-Benz's sales volumes were very low, the manufacturer managed to achieve a high year-on-year growth rate of 41.8 percent. Worth mentioning, however, is that Mercedes-Benz's sales last February were very low, which contributed to its high year-on-year growth rate.

Growth rates for other luxury manufacturers have been even more impressive. Infiniti was a prime example, with its sales over doubling to the 11,500 units it reported selling over the first five months of this year. Cadillac, which sold a total of 27,600 units over the same period of time, achieved sales growth of nearly 80 percent. Both manufacturers have benefited from increasing the scale of their Chinese operations.

Jaguar Land Rover and Volvo both achieved respectable sales growth rates. Jaguar Land Rover's sales increased 45.7 percent from 34,900 units to 50,900 units, while Volvo's grew 35.2 percent from 22,900 units to 31,000 units.

As the Chinese market continues to grow, it is continuing to become an ever important source of sales revenues for luxury manufacturers. For example, 25.4 percent of Jaguar Land Rover's total global sales from January to May came from the Chinese market, compared to 19.8 percent from last year. Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and Porsche reported that 30.5 percent, 22.4 percent, 17.5 percent, 16.7 percent and 23 percent of their global January to May sales came from China, respectively.