Now has nearly 300 dealerships, with plans for 80 more in 2012

German luxury carmaker BMW will continue rapid expansion of its sales and service network in China this year by adding more than 80 new dealerships, according to a senior executive at its local joint venture.

The company will further expand its network to smaller urban areas and open dealerships in 30 new cities this year, Daniel Kirchert, senior vice-president of sales and marketing at BMW Brilliance Automotive said in a recent interview.

The German native might be one of the foreign executives in China who can recite the most cities. Many names of small cities stream out in his conversation - some that even Chinese natives need a moment to place.

Kirchert said proudly that BMW was the first luxury carmaker to establish sales or service outlets in 35 Chinese cities, where the company held a market share of over 50 percent by the end of last year.

"This (a wide dealer network) will decide the future competition," Kirchert said in fluent Chinese as he always does when taking interviews by a group of local reporters. "We have to lay a solid foundation for long-term development."

BMW will soon open its 300th dealership in China. The company had about 290 dealerships in China by the end of last year, more than three times of the number in 2007. Its dealer staff increased from 5,500 people to more than 26,300 over the period.

Last year the company opened 80 new dealerships in China, setting a record for BMW globally.

China's luxury market will continue a rapid growth for the next five to 10 years, when BMW's dealer network is likely to double or even triple, Kirchert said. "There are more than 280 Chinese cities with population of over 1 million people where we have to cover."

To ensure quality is important while expanding at such high speed, Kirchert said.

Quality service

"To run a premium brand dealership is no different to running a five-star hotel - it's all about quality services," he said.

The carmaker now has several training facilities in China. It will open a new training base in Guangzhou, Guangdong province at the end of this year at the soonest and another in Xi'an, Shaanxi province next year.

Every BMW dealer employee in China received six days of training last year - a leading number in the industry, Kirchert said.

Last year BMW sold more than 230,000 cars on the Chinese mainland, about 94,400 of them locally made at the joint venture plant in Shenyang, Liaoning province.

The company just finished a new plant in the northeastern city that can increase its annual output in China to 200,000 units or even 300,000 units in the long term.

It also began to build the X1 SAV at its joint venture, in addition to the 3 Series and long-wheelbase 5 Series sedan.

The company said it believes X1 is a hit, with annual sales likely to double to 30,000 units. The next-generation 3 Series is set to be produced at the joint venture later this year and is expected to boost sales to a new record.

Sales of the current 3 Series models are still encouraging, as many customers know it's their last chance to own a fifth-generation 3 Series, Kirchert said.

In the first two months this year, BMW's sales in China surged 34.5 percent from a year ago to 46,465 units. Its market share increased by 0.3 percentage points to 25.4 percent.

This year will mark an important year for BMW with these important products like the locally produced X1 and new 3 Series, Kirchert said.

"It will be a baoma nian (the year of BMW)," he said.