Prestige luxury cars plummeting in April

Passenger vehicle registrations reached 780,000 units in April 2009, a year-on-year growth of 32.1%. By body type, small vans, which benefited the most from the stimulus package, soared 67.2% compared to last April. Hatchbacks also experienced high growth with a 45.9% increase, whilst sedans maintained a stable growth with a 26.2% increase. SUVs, however, saw a big slump in their growth with an only 5.6% year-on-year growth.

Further, MPVs continued to slowdown their decline with being 0.4% down year over year.

By region, nearly half of all provinces saw a more than 40% year-on-year growth in PV registrations. Guangdong also saw a sign of recovery with their year-on-year decrease reduced to 5.7%. Among Guangdong cities, Guangzhou, Foshan and Zhongshan all realized positive growth in April.

Luxury Cars Struggling

Not all segments in the passenger vehicle market have enjoyed such high growth spurred by the stimulus package. Compared to the boom of small engine cars, large engine cars are still suffering. The Upper medium segment saw a minimal 1.8% growth in the first four months this year, whilst the large segment was down 7.6% during the same period.

In terms of body type, Large MPVs slowed more than 20% in the first four months, whilst large cars also saw an 8.2% year-on-year decrease. Only large SUVs managed a 1.8% growth.

However, not all niche markets in the large segment suffered decreases during this period. Luxury cars with entry level still maintained a nearly 20% growth in the first four months of 2009. In contrast, prestige luxury cars slumped nearly 20% during the same period. BMW 7 Series, Lexus LS and Audi A8 all saw more than 20% decline, among them Lexus LS even suffered a more than 50% decline. The Mercedes Benz S class was the only model that with modest decline.