Why luxury car sales in China are still falling behind China

Recently, media reports said that the site selection for Infiniti's domestic base has ended and Dalian has finally won the competition in many cities. On November 24, related parties held a low-key signing ceremony for Infiniti’s home base in Dalian. Infiniti will adopt a model similar to that of Audi and set up the Infiniti division under the framework of Dongfeng Nissan. The fact that Infiniti has landed in Dalian means that there is no suspense in domestic production and the promotion work is also accelerating.

Infiniti’s domestic rumors have been buzzing for nearly a year. Despite China’s repeated denial of Infiniti’s domestic production by Nissan, the industry also believes that Infiniti’s domestic process is still only on a paper stage and did not expect an important part of domestic production—the factory site has been completed. It shows that Infiniti’s determination to “take root” in China is so great.

It is understood that Infiniti entered China only three years. In 2010, it sold 11,513 vehicles in China. Although China has become the world’s second largest market, the annual sales of nearly 300,000 Audis in China is almost trivial, even Not comparable to the 55,000 annual sales of Lexus, which is not domestically produced. The fact is that Infiniti has taken the first step toward localization. This year, except for Infiniti, Subaru and Jaguar and Land Rover have all reported that they are producing in China. In the first half of this year, Land Rover sold 16322 vehicles in China and 2186 Jaguar. In 2010, Subaru achieved sales of 57,000 vehicles in China.

It is worth noting that both Infiniti, Subaru, and Jaguar Land Rover, regardless of their sales volume in China, one thing is the same, that is, China is quickly becoming their most important market in the world. We can think that these car companies are smart because they are not the only hard indicator for whether to put into production in China or not based on sales or current market performance. Infiniti’s current sales in China are not large, if some The car company's point of view, this amount does not reach the level of domestic production, but it still firmly selected domestic, several Land Rover models increase sales in China, the fire is incredible, no one can only hide the car, but it still Also actively seeking joint venture partners in China.

Confidence in its own brand and local market, as well as consideration for long-term development in the local market, should be the main reason for these brands to choose domestically produced. In these years, the Chinese auto market was extremely hot and foreign brands came to “gold rush” and imported cars. The increase in sales volume and number of brands year after year is a good indication.

In addition, imported cars are mostly luxury brands, and Chinese luxury car prices have long been higher than the international price, but this situation can not be maintained for too long, with the increasingly important position of the Chinese car market, luxury car competition Intensification is an inevitable trend. Price reduction is also a natural thing. We firmly believe that the price of the Chinese auto market will sooner or later be in line with international standards.

With the localization of Infiniti and Subaru, Volvo made domestically-developed Chinese market and Jaguar Land Rover and other domestic brands, the luxury car market will not give too many opportunities for latecomers, the halo of imported cars and the pursuit of imported cars by domestic consumers. It will become weaker and weaker in the future.

Although there is indeed a variety of destabilizing factors for the localization decision of a brand, the status of China's auto market is rising. From the perspective of brand long-term development, domestic production is necessary. In addition, we also hope that more brands will have more social responsibilities. Do not just make money from the hot Chinese car market. Give up some short-term bicycle profits and eventually win the recognition of this world's most important automobile market. We are also happy to see More imported car brands are made domestically so that Chinese consumers can really benefit from it.