Luxury car sales roll at auto show

By Wang Chao (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-30 07:54

About 40 luxury cars worth more than 150 million yuan have been sold at the Beijing auto show, which ends on Monday.

The elite car at the show, the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 grand sport, which had a price tag of 38 million yuan, was snagged on the first day.

The car is exceptionally rare, with only 300 available worldwide, and sells for 2.65 million euros in Europe.

According to staff working at the exhibition center, the car will need to be revamped back in France before it is shipped back to the customer in China.

The luxury brands were on show in the E4 and E5 exhibition halls and most were priced at more than 2 million yuan.

According to Gao Mengxiong, Maserati China's sales manager, five of the six cars he was displaying sold at the show and will be delivered to customers.

"Another 10 will be delivered in six to eight weeks, after the cars are customized to the customers' requirements," Gao said.

Given that each model sells for 2.5 million yuan, Maserati saw total sales of about 37 million yuan.

Another elite car seller was pleased with the event.

"We are going to get big orders at this auto show, based on my former experiences," a representative at the Rolls-Royce booth said. He said one customer ordered a famed Rolls-Royce Ghost.

Porsche too enjoyed the pit stop in Beijing. Other than three cars it brought for display purposes only, the company sold its eight cars within three days. Among them, the most expensive sold for more than 2 million yuan.

Senior managers with companies attending the show said they were impressed with the spending power shown by Chinese customers.

"The buyers of Bugatti in China are much younger than those in other countries," Zheng Shunjing, director of Bugatti China, told Beijing News. "The customers in China are mostly younger than 40, five to 10 years younger than those in Western countries."

Mai Jiongtian, CEO of Bently China, agreed.

"The sales of Bently increased by 111 percent in the first quarter," Mai said in an interview with Beijing News. He said rich people in China were increasing by 8 percent every year, which made it a major target of luxury car makers.

According to the Hurun list, there are more than 825,000 people with a personal wealth of more than 10 million yuan.

"Money is not the issue," said a 32-year-old customer surnamed Liu who was considering buying a Rolls-Royce. He said he already had a Mercedes-Benz S600 and a Jaguar sports car. "The only thing that bothers me is that the car is too attractive; I want to keep a low profile."