Luxury sales skyrocket in China, despite austerity measures
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Super-luxury and supercar sales haven`t slowed in China, despite President Xi Jinping`s attack on conspicuous consumption a few years back. Maserati, McLaren and Porsche each just had their best sales year ever in the country, while Ferrari and Aston are also closing in on their peaks.
According to a Bloomberg report, the sales void is being packed by private consumption in a country that added ten percent more millionaires in two thousand sixteen than it had in 2015. Consumer confidence is high, says Johannesburg-based consultancy Fresh World Wealth.
“The outlook is looking pretty good for us here in the China market,” said Reid Bigland, head of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’s Maserati and Alfa Romeo divisions at the Shanghai auto display.
“With us, we just haven’t felt it,” he said, referring to the influence of the crackdown on consumption.
Even a ten percent «super-luxury» tax announced in December, affecting cars costing more than $189,000 (1.Three million yuan), hasn`t diminished the desire. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Steve Man says it could point to an improvement in the global luxury market. Wolfgang Durheimer, Bentley CEO, says he expects to set a fresh sales record with the Bentayga SUV in China in 2017.
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Maserati and Alfa Romeo are adding dealers, and McLaren doubled sales in the country in 2016. Aston Martin says it will hit its target of selling two hundred seventy cars in 2017, up from one hundred seventy in 2016.
It`s not just the uber-luxury cars that are moving: BMW and Audi sales are both up; Acura is aiming at 30,000 sales, and Hyundai is bringing Genesis over, too. Lincoln chief Kumar Galhotra went as far as telling that China is going to be the largest luxury market within a year or two.
Part of Xi`s anti-conspicuous-consumption drive was also meant to curb corruption and end graft. Some of those luxury-car sales were gifts, attempting to curry favor from politicians. More than 400,000 government officials were disciplined in two thousand sixteen for corruption, twenty three percent more than 2015.
Jake Lingeman – Jake Lingeman is Road Test Editor at Autoweek, reviewing cars, reporting on car news, car tech and the world at large.