Analysis of Global and Chinese Sales of Three Luxury Car Brands from January to August 2012

Global sales: Audi's January-August sales are approaching BMW's again

From January to August this year, among the three luxury brands in the German Department, BMW's global sales still ranked first, while Audi once again approached BMW, Mercedes-Benz and the previous two sales gaps expanded.

From January to August this year, BMW's global sales increased by 7.8% from the same period last year to 963,100, still higher than that of Audi and Mercedes-Benz. Audi's global sales once again approached BMW, which increased by 12.7% year-on-year to 961,000 vehicles, which is only less than two thousand vehicles lower than that of BMW. In the first half of this year, the global sales gap between the two countries was only 13,800, and the gap between January and July was reduced to 7,427 vehicles. Mercedes-Benz's sales in January-August this year only increased by 5.4% to 841,600 units. The sales gap with BMW and Audi further expanded.

From a single month’s point of view, Audi’s sales in August remained double-digit growth, up 14.9% year-on-year to 108,100 vehicles, which was higher than that of BMW and Mercedes. Both of the latter two global sales increased by single digits: BMW's global sales increased by 8.3% year-on-year to 102,700; Mercedes-Benz only increased by 4.5% to 91,300.

Sales in China: Outstanding performance of Audi and BMW

From the perspective of sales of three luxury brands in China (including domestic and imported sales), Audi and BMW performed well, while the Mercedes-Benz market performed relatively bluntly. (Note: Audi and Mercedes sales in China include Hong Kong and China, and BMW sales in China refer to China.)

From January to August this year, sales of Audi and BMW in China performed well, with a year-on-year growth of 33.1% and 30.0% respectively to 261,500 units and 192,800 units. Mercedes-Benz sold 127,700 vehicles in China, up only 6.2% year-on-year.



From the perspective of the proportion of sales in China to global sales, compared with the same period of last year, the sales of luxury brands in China from January to August this year have increased. Among them, Audi's sales in China accounted for the highest proportion, from 23.0% in the same period last year rose to 27.2% in January-August this year; the second highest percentage is BMW, its sales in China increased by 3.4 percentage points to 20.0%; Mercedes-Benz's sales in China accounted for 15.2%, slightly higher than the same period last year (15.1%).

China-made cars in China: Audi's August sales fell for the first time in the year



Judging from domestic cars in China, from January to August this year, the three major luxury brand markets performed well. Among them, BMW's sales of domestically-produced vehicles in China grew fastest, an increase of 51.7% year-on-year to 104,800; followed by Audi, its domestic vehicle sales in China increased by 36.2% year-on-year to 21.95 million; Mercedes-Benz China-made cars (referring to Beijing Benz, The same sales volume was 51,100 vehicles, an increase of 26.7% year-on-year.



In a single month, among the top three luxury brands, Audi's China-made vehicle sales in China first fell in August this year, a slight drop of 3.1 to 27,000 units year-on-year. Mercedes-Benz and BMW sales both achieved rapid growth. Mercedes-Benz’s domestic vehicle sales in China surged 132.6% year-on-year to 9,891 vehicles in August. BMW’s domestic vehicle sales in China increased 55.1% year-on-year to 11,900 vehicles.

Note:

1. Unless otherwise specified, the sales data of this article are taken from the data listed in the news bulletins of the auto enterprises of each brand.

2. Mercedes-Benz brand sales refer to Mercedes-Benz Motors’ Mercedes-Benz brand sales of the Daimler Group, excluding Mercedes-Benz light commercial vehicle sales of the Mercedes-Benz brand.

3. Audi and Mercedes sales in China include sales in Hong Kong and China, while BMW sales in China refer only to sales in the Chinese mainland.