Top luxury automobile manufacturers in China in 2014

According to statistics from Gasgoo.com (Chinese), Audi was the best selling luxury brand in the Chinese market last year, followed by BMW (whose sales included Mini vehicles), Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar Land Rover, Lexus, Volvo, Cadillac, Porsche, Infiniti and Citroën DS.

Citroën DS replaced Acura, while the other rankings remained the same. DS has seen impressive sales growth of 559 percent thanks to its ambitious localization program.

Growth for the luxury automobile market as a whole was very strong, with the big three of Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz continuing to dominate 73.9 percent of the market. The three manufacturers’ sales totaled 1.32 million vehicles. Audi led the market with a total of 578,900 vehicles, while sales of BMW (and Mini) and Mercedes-Benz were 456,000 vehicles and 281,600 vehicles, respectively. Although Mercedes-Benz is still lagging behind Audi and BMW, its year-on-year sales growth of 29.1 percent exceeded Audi’s 17.7 percent and BMW’s 16.7 percent. Mercedes-Benz has benefited from increased localization, an influx of new models and growing sales channel.

While other manufacturers still have to cover a lot of room to reach the big three. Jaguar Land Rover has managed to sell 122,000 vehicles, up 28.1 percent from the previous year. Jaguar Land Rover has benefited from the growing SUV market.

Lexus’ sales volume for 2014 is anticipated to reach 85,000 vehicles, growing 15 percent from last year. Volvo and Cadillac, meanwhile, achieved strong sales growth rates of 32.8 percent and 47 percent, respectively, thanks in large part to growing investments.