Summary: global premium car brands’ China sales in March & Q1

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Last month, Mercedes-Benz overtook BMW and Audi in terms of March sales in China. Cadillac and Lexus didn’t directly give their monthly sales numbers, while according to General Motors and the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), the two major second-tier premium car brands encountered negative sales growth in March.

Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz sold 61,913 vehicles in China last month, which made its Q1 sales aggregated 174,343 units, edging up 2.6% from a year ago.

According to the data released by the CPCA, the Mercedes-Benz C-Class and E-Class, with 14,789 units and 14,026 units delivered respectively, took the championship and the runner-up place on the premium sedan model list by March retail sales. Meanwhile, the best-selling premium SUV model was the Mercedes-Benz GLC-Class, whose March sales jumped 33.8% from a year earlier to 12,390 units.

At the Auto Shanghai 2019, Mercedes-Benz celebrated the world premieres of close-to-production show car Concept GLB and the Mercedes-AMG A 35 L 4MATIC developed exclusively for China.

BMW

Among the three German premium car brands, BMW boasts the biggest growth in both March sales and Q1 sales for the world's largest auto market.

The CPCA's data showed that the March retail sales of the BMW 5 Series dropped 17% year on year to 11,174 units, ranking third among premium sedan models. Following the Mercedes-Benz GLC-Class, the BMW X3, with 10,374 units delivered, was the runner-up premium SUV model.

At the Auto Shanghai 2019, the new BMW 3 Series Sedan was making its Chinese debut at the international motor show, and the latest generation of the sports sedan will be built for the Chinese market by BMW Brilliance Automotive in Shenyang. Visitors to the show, were also be greeted by the world premiere of the new BMW X3 M and the new BMW X4 M, plus the Asian premiere of the new BMW 8 Series Coupe and BMW 8 Series Convertible luxury sports cars. 

Audi

According to Audi's statement, in China, the German car brand continued to grow in the first quarter: In the first three months the number of deliveries increased by 3.3% to a record-breaking figure of 159,334 automobiles. In March, Audi set a new record-breaking figure with 55,250 vehicles sold (+2.3%). Demand was particularly strong for the Audi A4, with the year-on-year increase of 7.6% bringing monthly sales to 14,854 units. Since the start of the year 43,004 Chinese customers decided to buy an A4 (+15.1%). Deliveries of the Audi A5 also increased sharply in the first quarter, up 48.6% to 4,272 units.

Volvo

Volvo's sales in China during the first quarter reached 29,886 units, up 3.9% compared with the same period last year. The growth was driven by demand for the locally built XC60 and S90 models. In March, the company sold 11,413 cars, a year-on-year increase of 6.7%.

The Volvo S90 and Volvo XC60's retail sales in March reached 3,480 units and 4,690 units respectively, both ranking 5th on the premium sedan and SUV model lists, according to the CPCA.

Jaguar Land Rover

Jaguar Land Rover still faced a steep decline in China sales performance. Both March sales and Q1 sales showed year-on-year plunge of over 40%.

Cadillac

For the first three months of the year, Cadillac sold 44,684 units in China with an apparent decrease of 18.9%, according to a sales report from General Motors. The Q1 retail sales of the Cadillac CT6 and the XT5 slumped 36.2% and 46.5% respectively to 2,483 units and 10,743 units.

Cadillac will introduce the upgraded XT5 in May and the XT6 in July to help strengthen its position in luxury SUVs. Cadillac House opened in Shanghai last month to provide consumers an immersive experience in the brand's heritage, technologies, craftsmanship and cultural influence. 

Lexus

According to the CPCA, Lexus's China sales in March shrank 14% year on year, which was even higher than 12.1% decrease for overall PV market's retail sales. This was quite rare for the Japanese car brand who saw its China sales continuously climbed for quite a few months.

On March 27, Lexus announced the plan to reduce suggest retail prices on several models in China in response to the government's VAT drop policy for the manufacturing industry. The price of the LC 500h special edition was cut by up to RMB33,000. However, three sales mainstays—the ES, the NX and the RX, whose aggregated sales in 2018 accounted for 83.6% of the total annual sales, are not involved in this price reduction. 

Infiniti

Dongfeng Infiniti, selling 5,189 vehicles in the first quarter, attained an impressive year-on-year growth of 28.4%. The CPCA said the Q1 retail sales of the Infiniti QX50 marvelously surged 3043% compared with the same period a year ago to 3,583 units, ranking 10th among premium SUV models.