Decelerating sales don't faze ultra-luxury sports car makers

A Ferrari sports car is displayed at the Beijing Auto Show on Sunday. Provided to China Daily

Ultra-luxury vehicle producers, especially makers of super sports cars, saw Chinese sales fall in 2013, down from a two-year boom and partly attributed to the central government's ban on conspicuous consumption.

Analysts and industry players said there is still huge potential from local market demand amid fast economic development, and that a healthy and sustainable increase will occur.

"China's passenger car sales maintained strong growth last year as the world's largest; however, the super sports car segment is another story," said Andrea Baldi, Lamborghini's China head.

The Italian super sports car brand saw its 2013 sales drop by 16.7 percent to 267 units in China, its second-largest market behind the United States.

"The challenge in the China market is clearly different from the rest of the world as it is a less mature market for super sports cars," said Baldi.

Even though it is slowing, Baldi still believes the super sports car segment in China will continue to grow.

He attributed the company's sales decline from its best performance of 342 units in 2011 to a product upgrade and a period of delivery shortages of Gallardos, the most popular Lamborghini model in China.

Though total sales numbers dropped, Baldi said 2013 was still a positive year for Lamborghini as another model, the 7-million-yuan Aventador, enjoyed its best year in China.

British brand Bentley suffered a similar situation in 2013, supplying zero units of flagship Flying Spur in the first nine months due to the model's upgrade.

Bentley delivered 2,191 vehicles to Chinese customers last year, a dip of 2.8 percent from the previous year. However, 927 cars were sold in the fourth quarter, thanks to a sufficient supply of Flying Spurs, which accounted for half of Bentley's sales among its three models.

Bentley said it was "pleased to see a sales surge of 46 percent from its Continental GT two-door sports car".

Though it saw sales decline by about 5.5 percent both globally and in China, Italian super sports car brand Ferrari reported record profits in 2013, an increase of 5.4 percent to 264 million euros ($364.6 million).

Ferrari said it had decided to reduce sales to maintain the brand's luxury status and increase the cars' value.

Ferrari's president, Luca di Montezemolo, earlier told China Daily that Ferrari wants to always provide "one car less than the market".

Baldi of Lamborghini said that though the ultra-luxury car market was partly affected by the Chinese government's policy on curbing extravagance and public spending in 2013, "the impact is limited".

Zhong Shi, an independent auto analyst based in Beijing, agreed that the government's measures will have an impact in the short term, but in the long run, China's ultra-luxury vehicle sector will continue to increase, not only because the nation's economic development but also because of the current low percentage of the niche segment in China's passenger vehicle market.

"There is always natural demand, and the market for ultra-luxury cars, including super sports cars, is growing mature," said Zhong.

Currently, super sports cars occupied only about 0.1 percent of the passenger car segment, while the figure is 1 to 2 percent in Western countries.

"Thus there is huge potential. I expect the segment to double in size in 10 years in China," said Baldi. "The stable local economic growth supports my confidence."

Henrik Wilhelmsmeyer, director of Rolls-Royce Region China, also said that the Chinese government's ban on luxury consumption brought "no impact to our business, as Rolls-Royce is never a mass luxury brand".

British iconic ultra-luxury automotive company Rolls-Royce Motors Cars Ltd crowned China as its largest market in 2013 - beating the US for the second time in three years - as the domestic market contributed 28 percent of Rolls' global sales, said Chief Executive Officer Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes.

The signature UK brand delivered 3,630 cars to customers in more than 40 countries in 2013, its fourth consecutive record year and the biggest in its history.

Strong year-on-year growth of 11 percent gave China the lead over a distant-second United States.

Mueller-Oetvoes told China Daily that, in addition to having an excellent product, another factor in Rolls' success in China was "aggressive dealership expansion over the past year". The UK marque added seven new dealerships in China, extending its coverage to 20 cities across the country. That accounted for nearly half of the 15 new dealers worldwide.