Luxury car sales continue to grow in China

Whilst the Chinese auto market is down as a whole, there are certain niche segments such as the luxury car business that seems to performing above and beyond expectations.

The German brands of Mercedes, BMW and Audi appear to have the greatest control over the luxury car market, but the Japanese brands such as Acura, Infiniti and Lexus are gaining ground.

In the first half of the year Mercedes, including AMG, Smart, and Maybach brands sold 59,600 vehicles, which is a sales increase of 122% over 2009′s sales. BMW delivered 75615 cars to customers in the same period, although the sales figures is a combination of MINI and BMW sales, it has placed China as BMW’s third biggest market over taking the UK in the process. Audi is still the boss of the Chinese luxury car market and delivered 108,600 cars in the first six months of this year, the first time it has broke the 100,000 sales within six months barrier.

In the first half of the year Lexus sold 20,000 vehicles which is a 10,000 vehicle increase over the same period in 2009. Sales statistics for Infiniti China and Acura China are not currently available. Infiniti is expected to have a major sales push over the next 12 months as the Infiniti HQ was recently moved to Shanghai.