It is a well-known fact that Chinese consumers have a large appetite for luxury cars. Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi have all seen their global sales increase significantly over the last few years thanks to their presence on the Chinese market.
Out of the three big German luxury car brands, Audi is the one that has been present in China for the longest amount of time, and it is the one that has by far the best reputation. A good part of China’s business and government elite gets chauffeured around in market-specific long-wheelbase A6Ls.
Audi’s presence in China reached a milestone last week when the brand announced that in 2011, it had sold 313,036 cars in China and Hong Kong. That number marks a 37% increase over 2010 and makes China the largest market for Audi, surpassing Germany and the United States.
Some of Audi’s best sellers were the A6L, the Q7, and the A8L. Compared to 2010, sales of the Q7 went up by 70% to 19,063 units, and A8L sales reached 12,425 units, a 153% increase.
The near-historic level of growth that Audi has experienced in China is motivating the brand to accelerate its expansion plans. It is currently building a new factory in the city of Foshan, located in China’s southern Guangdong province. It will be fully operational in 2013 and it will build between 150,000 and 200,000 cars a year.
Audi’s sales records are not just limited to China. In 2011, the Ingolstadt-based brand sold 1,302,650 cars worldwide, beating its previous sales record by over 210,000 units.
“2011 was an unprecedented year in the history of Audi: Never before have we gained so many new customers in a single year,” said Peter Schwarzenbauer, Audi Board Member for Marketing and Sales. “In the U.S. market we established new sales records in every single month and achieved another clear improvement in our financial result – mainly thanks to the very successful drive in the full-size category”, added Schwarzenbauer.
