Luxury cars to hit sales wall in China

Buildings Brics: Rolls-Royce, Lamborghini, Aston Martin and other top marques are vying in the China's growing market for high-end models.

China has become the growth engine for global luxury models, as the gleaming showrooms such as this one on Jinbao Street testify. Frederic Brown / AFP

The street in Beijing is called Jinbao Lu, which translates as "Golden Treasure".

Here, luxury car marques such as Rolls-Royce, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Ferrari and Bentley jostle for position as the Hong Kong Jockey Club's branch and a mall solely featuring luxury brands look on.

China overtook the US as the world's biggest car market in 2009 and has also become the growth engine for global luxury models, as the gleaming showrooms on Jinbao Street testify.

Wiesmann, a German maker of hand-built sports cars, is setting up on Jinbao Street, selling its MF4 Roadster and MF5 GT models, while the British sports car manufacturer Morgan has announced a deal to sell its range, including the Aero, Roadster and 3 Wheeler cars, in Beijing.

Morgan is aiming for 1,500 deliveries worldwide this year, and up to 50 per cent of these cars are expected to be ordered by Chinese customers.

Although last year Chinese car sales overall rose 2.54 per cent, the country's lowest rate of growth in 13 years, the luxury end of the market expanded by more than 30 per cent - good news for foreign car makers.

Dieter Zetsche, the Daimler management board chairman, expects the company's Mercedes-Benz brand to "scale more heights" once it rolls out its complete fleet in China. The group is also opening an engine factory in China.

Yet there are signs the high-end motor manufacturers are not having things all their own way.

"Luxury car sales have been leading the growth in the whole market, but this is not a normal phenomenon," says Cui Dongshu, the deputy secretary general of the China Passenger Car Association. "The future growth will slow; it's not possible to have that kind of speedy growth. In 2011, sales agents were crazy, focusing on luxury cars as if growth would go on forever, but the future is not so bright."

Economic growth is slowing as the government tries to cap inflation and reduce a property bubble. The super-wealthy are sensitive to the slowdown, which might translate into lower sales of ultra-luxury sports cars.

The typical buyer of a Lamborghini in China is on average 20 years younger than in Europe, a fact borne out by the vision of what looks like teenagers whizzing about the streets of Beijing and Shanghai in these supercars.

Chinese customers have to wait at least 18 months before taking delivery of the Italian sports car maker's new flagship model, the Dh3.6 million (US$980,102) Aventador LP 700-4. The car is named after a Spanish bull that won renown in 1993 for its outstanding courage in the bullring. The Aventador has a V12 engine that develops 700hp, launching the car to 100kph in 2.9 seconds, and a top speed of 350kph. Yet Lamborghini is cautious in its outlook.

"If you look at the economy right now, there may be some uncertainty to make people wait a little," Christian Mastro, the Asia Pacific general manager at Lamborghini, told Bloomberg last month. "The number of people able to spend this kind of money is limited; it's not unlimited."

There are other signs of growing pressure on the foreign car makers from the government. At the end of last year, the ministry of commerce and the national development and reform commission issued a directive that ministries would no longer automatically encourage foreign investment in the motoring sector. The government also decided to start an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation on cars imported from the US with engines of more than 2.5 litres. "There is no need to encourage more foreign companies as the sector is already saturated with far too many players. The focus of future endeavours should be to reshape the industry on a more sound footing," says Mr Cui.

In a move that could spell the end for the ubiquitous black Audis used by government officials, Beijing is considering whether to stop buying state cars from the German car maker and other foreign brands and focus on local limousines instead.

All 412 models approved for purchase by state agencies this year would be limited to Chinese brands, according to a proposal revealed by the ministry of industry and information technology.

This could cause serious ripples among cadres and bureaucrats who treasure their Audis. Official cars are easily recognisable by their distinctive white number plates, and some have an ear-splitting horn the drivers like to blare as they zip along the emergency lanes to avoid traffic.

Domestic cars still have a poor reputation among Chinese motorists, even if quality has improved in recent years. Overseas brands still carry far more cachet, and this is going to be difficult for the local producers to overcome.

The move would force foreign car makers out of an 82 billion yuan (Dh47.81bn) section of the world's biggest car market. Audi accounts for about one third of government and state-linked fleets. Beijing is reportedly keen to crank up efforts to protect Chinese car makers from competition from overseas producers such as General Motors and Volkswagen, which owns Audi.

Among the Chinese car makers that would be likely to benefit from keeping foreign brands out is FAW Group, which builds the Hongqi, or Red Flag, a limousine first made for chairman Mao Zedong back in 1958. The company has just received state approval to revive the Red Flag in the shape of the C131, after spending millions on overhauling the model.

The saloon will be the official vehicle for minister-level officials, said the website of the Communist Party newspaper, the People's Daily.

Other Chinese cars named in the list include BYD Auto, which is the car-producing offshoot of a battery maker that is hoping to make advances in hybrid technology. Lamborghini it is not.

The most recent figures for official car use are for the end of November 2007, when the Chinese ministry of supervision estimated the state operated a fleet of at least 5.2 million vehicles - more than the total number of cars sold in Japan last year.

Rao Da, the secretary general of the Chinese Passenger Car Association, does not expect a major increase in the sale of domestically produced luxury saloons.

"Don't get too high expectations. The symbolism of this policy is more than the actual significance. How much help it will bring to independent brands is unknown," he says. "Joint venture brands won't give up too easily on the official purchasing market."