Audi's Sales Will Slowdown In China

No matter whether Audi is willing to admit, it must face the reality. Mercedes-Benz and BMW are catching up Audi's hegemony in China's luxury car market with an absolute strength and speed.

Data show that Audi's two old rivals Mercedes-Benz and BMW both achieved a growth rate of more than70% in China. In this aggressive competing market environment, in the first five month of this year, Audi's sales in China is 112 000 units, an increase of 28%. It obviously can not suppress the momentum of the opponent. Experts believe that if calculated by the present growth rate, in the November this year, BMW will be flat in sales with Audi and be able to go ahead in the December.

Mercedes-Benz and BMW's growth rate of 70% should not be simply used to compare with Audi. After all, the sales base of these two brands is already small. Taking advantage of the market conditions blowout, to achieve such growth is not surprising. This high growth in the final analysis is just a phenomenon of numbers.

In the first five months of this year, the sales of BMW in China are 100,800, an increase of 71%, twice as much as the Audi's growth rate of28%. But the sales are still about 12,000 sets less than Audi; the sales of Mercedes-Benz in China in 2010 are 169 000 sets. In the first five months of this year, the sales of Mercedes-Benz in China are79 thousand, an increase of 70%, twice as much as Audi, but still nearly 33,000 sets less than Audi. To completely fill the sales gap, the pressure on the production line and dealers is invaluable.

Now the capacity of BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz actually has been close to saturation. It is not surprising that the delivery of some models has been discharged after six months. To reduce the nearly 33,000 of the gap, the adjustment is not able to complete within a short period.

There is another problem worthy of attention. The rapid growth of BMW Mercedes is related with the new 5 Series and the new E-series. While during this period, the main model Audi A6, A4 have no new replacement or upgrade.

About Audi's slower growth in the competition, many experts believe that Audi's most deadly problem stems from the brand. Audi brand still has no clear meaning for people's approval. "Breakthrough science and technology, enlightening the future" conveyed the brand message to the customer is too intuitive. Why Audi can dominate the Chinese market in the past 20 years is closely linked with the specific historical context.