Chinese luxury automobile market in the first half of 2014

According to data from Gasgoo.com (Chinese), Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz were once again China's most successful luxury automobile manufacturers over the first half of this year. The German big three was followed by Jaguar Land Rover, Lexus, Volvo, Cadillac, Porsche and Infiniti. Citroën's DS brand followed right after Infiniti.

The DS brand, which made its debut only two years ago, has performed incredibly well. 10,400 DS vehicles have been sold since the beginning of the year. The DS brand has benefited from rapid development of its sales network and its domestic production plan. 9,700 Chinese-made DS vehicles were sold over the six month period, accounting for 95 percent of all DS vehicles sold in the country. Monthly sales of DS vehicles for April, May and June were 2,139 units, 2,702 units and 2,328 units, respectively.

As expected, the top three German manufacturers dominated the country's luxury automobile market. Sales of Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz's sales volumes for the first half of the year were 268,700 units, 225,000 units and 136,000 units, respectively. The three manufacturers were responsible for nearly 75 percent of all luxury automobiles sold over the six month time period.

Mercedes-Benz's sales growth was 37.5 percent, exceeding Audi and BMW's reported figures. Its high sales growth rates were caused by especially low sales recorded last February. Audi and BMW's respective sales growth rates were 17.8 percent and 23.1 percent.

As for the remaining luxury automobile manufacturers, Jaguar Land Rover achieved sales growth of nearly 50 percent. By comparison, Lexus and Volvo's sales growth rates were just over 30 percent.

Infiniti and Cadillac also reported very high growth rates, with the former's sales over doubling from the first half of 2013 to the first half of this year. Both manufacturers have benefited from their increasing scope of their operations in China.

Porsche's sales growth rate for this half of the year was a low eight percent. Porsche's new Macan, which made its Chinese debut in July, will hopefully help boost its performance in the country.

One thing that is very clear is the increasing importance of China for luxury manufacturers. The proportion of the above manufacturers' sales that came from China has increased from last year. One shining example was Infiniti, whose proportion of sales from China grew from 7.8 percent in the first half of 2013 to 13.8 percent in the first half of this year.