Luxury makes a marque on China car sales

The market for luxury cars in China is growing at a stratospheric rate.

While the Middle Kingdom's vehicle sector has expanded briskly this year, with sales up 52 per cent in the first six months to 5.7 million cars, the premium segment has been growing even faster in percentage terms.

In the first half of this year, the German maker Mercedes-Benz shifted 60,000 cars, a 120 per cent increase on the same period last year, while its arch-rival BMW made 71,000 sales, doubling sales for the first half of last year.

The leader of the luxury pack in China, Audi, enjoyed a two thirds jump in sales from January to the end of June, reaching almost 110,000 units.

Lin Huabin, a senior motor industry market analyst for IHS Global Insight in Shanghai, says the luxury car sector in China is growing so fast partly because it is expanding from a small base, relative to the total size of the country's motor industry.

The increase in premium sales also reflects China's "tremendous increase in economic development".

"This year [economic growth] is about 10 per cent and the incomes are growing faster, so that's a reason," Mr Lin says.

Car buyers in the UAE will readily identify with the enthusiasm of Chinese buyers for a bit of luxury as premium brands also post healthy sales in the Emirates, but the names of the vehicles are often very different.