BMW gears up to compete with German rivals for luxury car sales in China

21 April 2008

German luxury carmaker BMW's China venture BMW Brilliance, plans to achieve double-digit sales growth in the world's second largest auto market, this year for both its BMW and Mini vehicles.

BMW has stepped up its Chinese operations in response to its German rival Daimler AG, claiming to overtake BMW as the second most selling luxury car brands in China. Curently, another German carmaker Audi, a unit of Volkswagen is the top selling luxury car company in China. (See: Auto China 2008: Mercedez Benz premiere's the GLK SUV in bid to overtake BMW in China)

The company expects to expand production in China by up to 40 per cent this year, to about 42,000 cars from about 30,000 in 2007, said Ian Robertson, a member of BMW's management board. View: videos BMW M3

BMW would also would triple the capacity of its production plant in China by 2012 and aims to sell 1 million by the same period, up from 300,000 in 2007.

Robertson, who is also the chairman and chief executive of BMW's Rolls-Royce unit, stated the company is planning to add three more Rolls-Royce dealerships in China this year, raising the total to eight.

China is currently Rolls-Royce's third-largest market in the world, Robertson added Brilliance China Automotive Holdings,  a 49:51 joint venture between BMW and state-owned Brilliance Auto, makes the BMW 3 and 5 series cars at the Shenyang plant. The company plans to raise its annual capacity to 100,000 units in four years from 35,000 units currenlty, BMW stated during a press briefing at Auto China 2008 on 20 April.