Bentley shifts its global thrust into high gear

A Bentley GT Speed model is pictured at a Shanghai auto show, April 20, 2013. [Photo by Hao Yan / chinadaily.com.cn]

China could overtake the US to become Bentley Motors' largest market within four years, Wolfgang Schreiber, chairman and chief executive of the British automaker told China Daily in an exclusive interview on Wednesday.

Schreiber said Bentley plans to sell 15,000 cars globally by 2018-an ambitious upsurge from its 2013 numbers-and by then, China's share could grow to 25 percent of global sales.

Schreiber spoke just after the company announced its 2013 sales figures at a news conference in London. Last year, Bentley sold 10,120 cars, a record for the company and a 19 percent increase over 2012's sales.

China is Bentley's second-largest market, with a 22 percent share, following the US' 31 percent. Bentley sold 2,191 cars in China in 2013, of which 927 were sold in the fourth quarter. It set a Bentley sales record for a single quarter across all markets and regions.

That strong growth coincided with batch deliveries to the Chinese market, starting in September 2013, of the new Flying Spur-the fastest high performance super-luxury four-door model Bentley has come out with.

"The new Flying Spur is tailor-made for China. We know that Chinese customers like high comfort and low noise level, and our attractive interior, with leather and new technology, delivers both," Schreiber said.

Other models that were launched by Bentley in China last year were the updated 2014 Mulsanne, the Mulsanne Seasons Edition and the Continental GT Speed.

The two-door Continental series attracted an increasing number of young and female consumers in China, with annual sales up by 46 percent from 2012.

Bentley added 12 new authorized dealers in China in 2013, bringing the total to 38 by the end of last year. In January, it added another: Bentley Suzhou.

Schreiber said his team selects dealers who understand the value of service, as it is core to the brand.

According to Bentley's own statistics, the company has an approximately 30 percent share of China's super-luxury car market, which is a segment that includes the likes of Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin and Mercedes-Benz.

Schreiber said Bentley's advantage is its good combination of luxury and performance, as the company emphasizes both.

Bentley entered the Chinese market in 2002. Schreiber said the biggest challenge the company encountered was in persuading Chinese customers to test-drive the car, as the experience of sitting in a showroom and being on the road are quite different.

He said the heavy traffic congestion in big Chinese cities contributed to this challenge, as there are not many long stretches of road where a driver can fully experience the car's accelerating, braking and other functions.

To overcome the challenge, Bentley now uses race courses and country roads for test drives. "They are astonished to find how easy it is to drive the car," Schreiber said.

As of December 2013, there are more than 9,000 cars on Chinese roads.

Bentley's cars are made in the English Midlands town of Crewe, where it employs about 3,700 workers. The cars are exported whole to China and other international markets.

In recent years, Western car brands have begun establishing joint ventures with Chinese carmakers to manufacture cars in China for the domestic market. For example, Jaguar Land Rover has partnered with China's Chery Automobile Co Ltd to open a factory in Changshu, in Jiangsu province.

But Schreiber said Bentley will keep manufacturing in Crewe in order to maintain its quality and prestige.

As Crewe is home to all of Bentley's operations, including design, research and development, engineering and production, the company finds it more efficient to keep production there, he said.