With a 1.3 billion population and an increasing affluent middle class, the following bit of news comes as no surprise. If you've been paying attention to recent
global sales figures for BMW, you would have seen the writing on the wall.
BMW recently told
Autonews that China will probably surpass the U.S. as its top national market in 2013.
In the first half of 2013, BMW delivered more cars in China than in the U.S. and Chinese deliveries are likely to rise about 10 percent for the full year, says Karsten Engel, head of BMW's business in China. BMW delivered
182,800 cars and SUVs (including Minis) in China in the first half of 2013, compared to
172,787 in the U.S. The 182,800 Chinese deliveries represent an increase of 15.0% over the same period last year, while the 172,787 U.S. deliveries represents an increase of 8.9%.
Despite China's cooling economy, BMW expects that strong sales growth will continue for the company with increased sales from smaller cities and the modernizing western regions. "There are 100 cities with more than a million inhabitants in China with no premium car dealers at all, so this shows the huge potential we're having in this country," says Engel.
Audi is currently the top luxury car seller in China, but BMW has outgrown Audi in the past three years, at a rate of +40% delivery increase in 2013 against Audi's 30 percent gain.
BMW will keep its momentum in China going by adding more than 60 dealerships this year, which will result in at least one dealership in each of China's provinces. At the end of last year, the company's distribution network in the country totaled 360 outlets.