Booming car sales in China may bypass diesels

China’s fast-developing auto market may skip diesel cars altogether and move directly to gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles, BMW’s head of sales and marketing said Friday in an interview at the Paris Motor Show.

Because Beijing limits sales of diesel fuel to trucks, Chinese consumers, unlike Europeans, have never gotten used to the idea that diesel is more economical than gasoline, said Ian Robertson, who is also a member of the German company’s management board.

The proximity of the market to leading East Asian hybrid makers also suggests such an evolution, he said.

BMW has made a goal of being the top luxury carmaker in China. Its sales there are running ahead of schedule, and the company, which had already raised its 2010 forecast from 100,000 vehicles to 120,000 vehicles, is certain to surpass even the higher estimate, Mr. Robertson said.

BMW, based in Munich, sold more than 90,000 cars there last year.

“China is already our third-largest market, displacing the U.K.,” he said. Growth in Britain will be up “about 22 percent” this year, he added, while sales in China had been up as much as 100 percent in some months.

BMW’s brands also include Mini and Rolls-Royce.

Germany is the company’s largest market, he said, having overtaken the American market during the financial crisis, but added “it’s nip-and-tuck with the United States.”

BMW is hoping the new version of its X3 luxury crossover, which it rolled out at the auto show, will again make the United States its top market. The company invested $750 million in its Spartanburg, S.C., facility to produce the vehicle.

Mr. Robertson noted that despite the weakness of volume automakers in mature markets, the global luxury sector was holding up well. “It’s not just cars,” he said, “it’s true for handbags and hotels, too.”

BMW’s overall sales are up 12.5 percent for the year through August, to 920,000 vehicles, he said.

While the German market fell by roughly a quarter during that time, much of that decline resulted from the end of government “cash for clunker” programs, which simply drew demand forward, he said. But as those programs were meant to help consumers move to smaller cars, they did not help the premium market to begin with, and it wasn’t adversely affected by the expiration of the incentives, he said.

“Our European sales are basically flat,” he said.

BMW later Friday announced a recall of 350,800 BMW and Rolls-Royce cars worldwide to fix a problem with the power brakes. The company also this week announced a “major order” from Saab to provide the automaker with 4-cylinder gasoline engines.