Global car makers such as GM, Daimler, BMW and Peugeot are counting on China to maintain growth in their premium offerings, even as all the signs point to an overall slowing in the world’s largest auto market.
Even conservative forecasts have China’s automobile market surging to 30 million vehicles a year by 2020 from last year’s 18 million. Some think volume could even reach 40 million.
Executives attending the Beijing autoshow from premium brands like Mercedes, BMW and Audi were bullish about a segment they said still has plenty of room to grow.
“We expect the premium segment to grow much more strongly than the overall market,” said Audi sales chief Peter Schwarzenbauer in an interview with Reuters.
“China has 304 cities with at least 1 million population and we have so far only add dealers in 187 of them