BMW, Audi sales rise as China car market doubles

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, the world's biggest maker of luxury cars, and Volkswagen AG's Audi premium division reported November sales gains as China's auto market almost doubled because of government incentives.

Global sales by BMW and its Mini and Rolls-Royce brands rose 12 percent to 107,686 cars and sport-utility vehicles, the Munich-based company said. Audi made 82,750 deliveries last month, an increase of 8.9 percent from a year earlier, the Ingolstadt, Germany-based company said today in a statement.

Passenger-car sales in China surged 98 percent to 1.04 million vehicles last month, the most in at least five years, as consumers took advantage of tax breaks and subsidies. That contrasts with the U.S. car market, which was unchanged from a year earlier. Sales in Germany, which will rise this year because of government incentives, may shrink in 2010 as state backing ends, according to the country's carmakers lobby.

"China is the undisputed locomotive of world car markets but we cannot forever rely on that uptrend," said Stefan Bratzel, director of the Center of Automotive Research at the University of Applied Sciences in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany. "One day the saturation level will be reached there. Beyond Asia, markets still look fairly fragile."

BMW fell as much as 57 cents, or 1.7 percent, to 32.05 euros and was down 1.3 percent as of 1:51 p.m. in Frankfurt trading, while Germany's benchmark DAX Index declined 1.9 percent. BMW stock has risen 49 percent this year. Volkswagen fell 1.63 euros, or 2 percent, to 79.79 euros. Shares of Europe's biggest carmaker have dropped 68 percent this year.

Growth at Daimler

Daimler AG, the world's second-biggest maker of luxury vehicles, reported a 16 percent gain in its Mercedes-Benz Cars division's November deliveries to 98,400 vehicles, the second increase this year, led by demand for E- and S-Class sedans. Stuttgart, Germany-based Daimler predicted yesterday that sales will rise "significantly" in the fourth quarter.

Germany's car market may contract to as few as 2.75 million vehicles in 2010 after expanding by 23 percent this year to 3.8 million units, according to the Frankfurt-based VDA auto- manufacturers association. The country's 5 billion-euro ($7.4 billion) "cash-for-clunkers" plan expired in September.

"Carmakers feel that business conditions are improving, though it's a revival on low levels," said Frank Schwope, an analyst at NordLB in Hanover, Germany. "There's no denying that 2010 will be a difficult year, also for luxury carmakers."

Year's Drop Narrows

Audi's November sales gain narrowed the decline in year-to- date deliveries to 5.4 percent, or 870,600 vehicles, from a 6.7 percent drop in the 10 months through October. Chinese deliveries more than doubled in November to 16,503 vehicles from 8,173 a year earlier, helped by the A6 sedan. U.S. sales rose 0.3 percent from a year earlier to 6,810 vehicles, compared with a 1.1 percent decline in October.

The Volkswagen division raised its full-year goal for worldwide deliveries on Nov. 9 by 2.8 percent to 925,000 vehicles. In 2008, Audi posted a 4.1 percent gain in sales, its 13th consecutive annual increase.

BMW's sales growth was propelled by an "extremely positive trend" in China, where deliveries surged 40 percent to 8,470 vehicles, the company said today in a statement. Demand also increased in Europe, Africa and the Pacific region.

"Since September, sales have been back on the growth track," Ian Robertson, head of sales at BMW, said in the statement. "We intend to continue this trend in December."