A mood of quiet optimism seems to be returning to the German luxury car business. BMW reported a small 0.7 per cent increase in September sales compared with the same month last year. While sales at Mercedes-Benz and Audi were lower during the period, the decline was far less pronounced than it has been over recent months.
For the German premium carmakers this is a clear sign that the worst may be over and that sales should start growing again. Sales in emerging markets, especially China, are already buoyant, so much so that China could soon overtake Germany as Audi's single largest market.
Audi sold 167,000 new cars in Germany in the first nine months of this year and 109,000 in China. Its sales to China grew by 20 per cent in the first nine months and by a heady 36.5 per cent in September alone. Both BMW and Daimler also reported strong sales in China. Although they are still trailing Audi in volume numbers in the Chinese market, in percentage terms they have been matching and indeed outperforming their domestic rival. In September alone, Mercedes' sales in China leapt nearly 60 per cent while BMW's rose by 35 per cent year-on-year.
