electric vehicle maker BYD<\/a>, have become more aggressive than many Western brands in technological innovation, frequently rolling out new electric vehicles and hybrids at cheaper prices, including premium vehicles, analysts said.<\/p>\n\u201cTheir (Chinese carmakers\u2019) products are more competitive and more affordable even in the premium segment,\u201d Yuan said. \u201cThat\u2019s why these foreign brands are gradually losing momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Chinese brands\u2019 share of passenger car sales climbed to almost 70% in the first 11 months of this year, according to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. It reported Thursday that German brands held a 12% share, Japanese brands around 10% and U.S. brands nearly 6%.<\/p>\n
BYD already has overtaken Volkswagen as the biggest car seller in China in recent years. BYD is so far the best selling car brand this year in China for \u201cnew energy vehicles,\u201d which include electric vehicles and hybrids, according to the China Passenger Car Association. BYD had cut prices of its electric and plug-in hybrid models by up to 34%, putting pressure on major rivals like Geely and Leapmotor.<\/p>\n
Mercedes-Benz\u2019s sales by units in China fell 27% from a year earlier in the July-September quarter, according to its latest earning report. The number of BMWs and its subsidiary-brand Minis sold in China dropped 11.2% year-on-year in the first nine months of 2025. Porsche and Aston Martin also cited pressure from weaker demand in China.<\/p>\n
Italian luxury carmaker Ferrari reported a 13% year-on-year drop in car shipments to mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan in January-September. It was the only region where sales declined during that time.<\/p>\n
Ola K\u00e4llenius, CEO of Mercedes-Benz, told investors in late October that \u201chyper-competition in China is not going away anytime soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cmarket situation in the premium and luxury segment in China remained tense,\u201d the carmaker said.<\/p>\n
Used luxury cars going for cheaper<\/p>\n
The downturn in interest in luxury vehicles is hitting dealerships hard.<\/p>\n
Li Yi, a salesperson in charge of second-hand cars at a Beijing Porsche center, said a 2024 Panamera 2.9T with a mileage of about 20,000 kilometers (12,400 miles) was priced at 950,000 yuan ($134,300). The previous owner bought it for about 1.4 million yuan ($198,454).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s mainly due to the sluggish economic situation,\u201d Li said. \u201c(It\u2019s) not only Porsche. Benz, BMW, Bentley and Rolls-Royce all face the same situation.\u201d Porsche and Bentley are part of the Volkswagen group.<\/p>\n
At a used-car market in Beijing, four other car dealership representatives who spoke to The Associated Press described a similarly grim situation, with premium cars selling at significantly lower prices over the past year.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s monthly auto production in November surpassed a record of 3.5 million units for the first time, the CAAM reported Thursday, but domestic auto sales dropped 4% year-on-year under fading demand as some trade-in subsidies were halted in some regions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho still has money these days? People\u2019s pockets are cleaner than their faces,\u201d joked one used car salesperson who identified herself as Hao.<\/p>\n
Prices have been sliding for two years and she offers bigger discounts, said the salesperson, who did not give her full name as she was not authorized by her company to speak to the media.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow they think hard before they spend,” she said.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Associated Press researchers Yu Bing and Shihuan Chen in Beijing contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HONG KONG (AP) \u2014 Chinese demand for foreign luxury cars is waning as customers opt for more affordable…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[6538,84,891,125168,1294,125170,18965,56145,125169,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-315114","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-aston-martin","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-china","11":"tag-china-association","12":"tag-economy","13":"tag-luxury-cars","14":"tag-mercedes-benz","15":"tag-porsche","16":"tag-premium-cars","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}