Prices for luxury automobiles in China may decrease

Yan Jinghui, deputy general manager of the Yayuncun Automobile Market, predicts prices in the import car market in China to fall in the near future, Beijing Business Today reported today. Mr. Yan believes that the price fall may spread to luxury vehicles unless dealership inventories are reduced.

The Mercedes S-Class was one of the first import luxury models to receive a noticeable price cut in the country, with its price being cut over 300,000 yuan ($47,887) last year. It was followed by other import models, as several dealerships were put under considerable stress due to a variety of market factors, including decreasing consumer demand.

As new updates to the Mercedes S-Class are released later this year, the manufacturer also has plans to implement new promotional offers. Among them, the S600 will be eligible for savings of 200,000 yuan ($31,924), while the S300 will have price savings of 168,000 yuan ($26,817). BMW soon followed suit, planning of offer savings of at least 90,000 yuan ($14,366) for its 7 Series.

According to Wang Cun, head of marketing and sales for the China Automobile Trading Company, China imported a total of 53,200 automobiles in February. The figure represents negative year-on-year growth of 54.2 percent. A total of 140,000 vehicles were imported over the first two months of the year. Mr. Wang pointed out that the import quantities are below average levels, which means that growth in inventory levels are remaining relatively stable. As a result, Mr. Wang points out that it is hard to accurately predict future pricing trends in the country. However he does expect import levels to recover over the next few months, which would cause prices to decrease.