Significant increase in sales: China revives German carmakers

The pattern from the financial crisis is repeated: Chinese car buyers are helping German premium manufacturers get back on track. In contrast, customers in North America remain cautious.

China is once again proving to be a lifeline for German automakers. In the third quarter, strong sales and catch-up effects in the Far East at BMW, Audi and Mercedes ensure a significant recovery in business. The three large German premium manufacturers are thus initially leaving the deep corona hole behind, as the sales figures show. In the second quarter, all three had to accept losses of more than 20 percent due to the Corona crisis.

It went best for BMW: From July to September, the Munich-based company and its subsidiary Mini achieved sales of 675,680 cars – an increase of 8.6 percent compared to the same period last year. The main driver was business in China, which was almost a third stronger. But Bayern were also able to gain 7.1 percent in Europe. The USA and North America, on the other hand, remained clearly in the red.

Audi achieved 6.4 percent higher deliveries in the third quarter. The company has not yet given any absolute figures, but in purely arithmetical terms this would result in around 480,000 cars. The drivers were a strong September and a similarly strong increase in deliveries in China. Including Hong Kong, it rose 17.8 percent in the quarter. In Europe, Audi was at the previous year's level, in the USA it was clearly in the red.

Mercedes-Benz showed the slowest growth of the three arch-rivals. In the third quarter, the Stuttgart-based company brought 625,675 Mercedes-Benz and Smart cars to customers – 1.2 percent more than in the same period of the previous year. Daimler owes the slight stabilization of the sales situation almost entirely to the Chinese market. There the group increased its sales in the third quarter by more than a fifth. In Europe, on the other hand, the car manufacturer recorded a minimal decline. In contrast, sales figures on the North American market remained clearly in the red. In a comparison of the three core brands BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz, however, the Stuttgart-based company was ahead.

Ferdinand Dudenhöffer from the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) sees a key role for China in the recovery of the automotive industry. "China will again be the locomotive of the automotive industry – as it was after the financial crisis," he said. On the other hand, he does not yet attach great importance to the recovery on the domestic continent: "The better numbers in Europe are primarily the catch-up effects from the weak second quarter."