Dal wsj: Behind China's Luxury-Car Boom
Un' altra interessante view che definisce con qualche numero in + la attuale potenzialità del mercato cinese per le vetture di lusso il che ridefinisce per assonanza anche le ambizioni del report Mercedes precedente.
Probabilmente, stante le buove imposizioni sugli immobili potrebbe starci che la liquidità venga impiegata da i nuovi ricchi nella acquisizione di status symbol...imho ovviamente
The appetite for high-end autos seems insatiable in the world's largest car market. Ian Robertson, BMW's head of sales and marketing, offers his thoughts on the Chinese car consumer and market
China became the world's largest car market in 2009, selling nearly 13.6 million vehicles and surpassing the U.S's 10.4 million sales that year. While automotive sales slowed in almost every other country due to the global recession (India was an exception), overall car sales in China jumped by 48%, according to Autodata Corp., an automotive statistical data company.
China has also staked a sizable claim in the luxury-car sector. BMW Group, which includes BMW, Rolls-Royce and Mini, saw many markets around the world decline 25-30% in 2009—overall global sales for the company dropped 10%, the company said. But BMW and Rolls-Royce sales in China were up 37% that year. (BMW is the second top seller of luxury cars in China, behind Audi.) Mercedes-Benz says its sales in February were up 160% in the country compared to the same month in 2009. Audi reported a 61.7% jump for the same period.
Why is China seeing such numbers? According to Ian Robertson, CEO of Rolls-Royce and BMW's sales and marketing board member, it's a combination of factors.
"In its boom years, the country has never known a recession. They certainly didn't feel the [current] recession in the way Europe and the U.S. did," Mr. Robertson says. He says Chinese consumers never changed their spending habits, even when the global financial meltdown hit, largely because the Chinese government injected 4 trillion yuan ($400 billion) worth of stimulus money into its economy at the end of 2008 and first half of 2009.
"Consumers had total faith that the government had fixed the problem. That's why they kept buying cars," he says. Part of the Chinese government's stimulus included subsidies for car buyers in rural markets and other tax incentives, which prodded first-time owners into the marketplace.
This past February, overall car sales in China were up 55% compared to February 2009, according to Autodata. (The U.S., which was the second-largest car market last year, behind China, saw a 13% jump in sales that same month.)
But beyond strong sales, China has turned into a parking lot for luxury cars. In February the BMW label says it sold 96.7% more cars in China than during the same month the previous year. "It could have been more, but we ran out of cars," Mr. Roberston says. He says China is the biggest market for its 7 Series, BMW's top-of-the-line model, by a factor of about two.
Mr. Robertson, who has been Rolls-Royce's chairman and CEO since 2005 and joined the BMW board of managers in 2008, says he has noticed an automotive hierarchy in China unlike any in Europe and North America. It's a boon for the business. In China, "the 5 Series is a car for mid-level managers," he says. "The 7 Series is for executives—and you won't ever see that line crossed." This hierarchy, he believes, stems from a market still developing its middle and upper classes. The 5 and 7 Series have become symbols of achieving "membership" in those wealth categories.
In Europe and the U.S., there isn't as much of an overt demand for such status symbols, he says. "It's a lifestyle difference in these markets, whereas it's a class difference in China," Mr. Robertson says.
BMW has made design concessions to cater to the Chinese market. China is the only market that carries a 5 Series with a long wheelbase. (It was introduced in 2007.) The extended wheelbase creates a roomier backseat, making it comfortable enough to be an "arrival and departure car" — in other words, a car with a chauffeur. "We're seeing more and more people wanting to drive themselves, but China is still a 'driven-in' car market," Mr. Robertson says. The long wheelbase in the 7 Series has been a standard in the fleet for years.
Riding on the importance of status symbol in China, BMW also expanded its product offering and price range in 2009 to include the cheaper 1-Series, up to a $150,000, tricked-out 7 Series. With a large pricing spread, the company hopes to create multiple entry points for potential buyers, a theme common among luxury brands in China, including Audi, which offers a range from a $40,000 A4 to a fully-loaded $283,000 A8L.
"We're not just targeting the high-end buyer," Mr. Robertson says. "I see segmentation increasing."
Not surprisingly, BMW's premium and tailor-made brand, Rolls-Royce, is also gaining popularity in China, surpassing Japan as its largest market in Asia and making up just over 10% of global sales in 2009.
"Bespoke in the U.S. is more difficult because dealers believe they need on-lot stock. Americans don't like to wait," Mr. Roberston says. Conversely, wait-time in China ranges from three to six months, as the cars are built in England, and this has become a status symbol and selling point, he says. "The customers in China like to brag about how long it will take to build their cars," he says.
But China poses limits. A law was passed in 2009 that forbade trucks from entering city limits after 8 p.m. A truck was defined as being longer than 6 meters (19.5 feet). The standard Rolls-Royce Phantom touches 6.4 meters (21 feet) on the measuring tape, making it illegal to cruise city streets at night. Mr. Robertson had the Phantom fender designs tweaked at its famous Goodwood, England, factory to shrink models headed to China to within the limit. "It took three months of engineering to adjust the Phantom's length," Mr. Robertson says, explaining Rolls-Royce willingness to make financial sacrifices in order to stay visible in the Chinese market.
The truck law brings up a larger issue for Mr. Robertson and other carmakers: The unpredictability of the Chinese government. "We know where legislation will be in the U.S. over the next couple of years," he says. "China may suddenly take huge regulatory steps to reduce carbon emissions or change safety regulations, but we don't have the legislative awareness like in other countries."
BMW is hedging against potential quick production changes by building a massive factory in Shenyang, China, expected to open in 2012. The initial capacity is 100,000 cars a year, with potential for 400,000 cars per year—comparable output to the company's main plant in Dingolfing, Germany.
The factory will also give BMW a manufacturing footprint in three markets—Asia, Europe and North America—helping the company maintain consistent pricing on its models despite fluctuations in currency or local material costs.
Despite BMW Group—and others—clamoring for Chinese market share, Mr. Robertson says his company's ultimate focus is on the other side of the Pacific, in the U.S. The U.S. market is older and more established, with millions of drivers already in the premium segment and loyal to the brand. Mr. Robertson notes that those American buyers tend to replace their cars in the premium segment, a pattern that hasn't had a chance to develop yet in the nascent Chinese marketplace.
And numbers can be deceiving. While China has a substantially higher percentage of growth and quantity in general car sales, it lags in total volume within the luxury-car sector. The BMW Group moved 90,563 vehicles in China in 2009, compared to 241,727 in the U.S. Says Mr. Robertson, "The premium market in the U.S. still has the most potential."
