BMW sees fastest growth, best potentials in China

China has become BMW's fourth largest market, where the German luxury car maker saw the fastest growth in auto sales in 2009, and great market potentials, a senior company official told Xinhua Wednesday.

The company saw a 38 percent growth in sales last year in China against a 10 percent decline worldwide due to the international financial crisis, said Christoph Stark, president and CEO of the BMW Group in China.

Stark said the company sold a total of 90,536 cars in China last year, including 16,006 of its flagship BMW 7 series, a record high and up 56.8 percent year on year.

He said China had remained the biggest market for its BMW 7 series for three consecutive years during the past four years.

Official figures showed China had overtaken the United States as the world's top auto maker and market in 2009 boosted by government stimulus measures.

Annual sales rose 46.15 percent year on year to 13.64 million units . Output increased 48.3 percent to 13.79 million units, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

In tandem with China's overall economic growth and fast urbanization, the country is seeing expanding middle-class families, which will become potential customers for luxury cars, said Stark.

He also said the portion of luxury cars was only 5 percent of the total car consumption market in the country while the portion exceeded 10 percent in mature car markets, which suggested greater growth potentials.