Strong luxury-car sales unaffected

The slowdown in economic growth and government efforts to curb extravagance will not affect sales of German luxury cars in China due to robust demand, according to a senior commerce official.

Instead, German vehicle companies are relying more heavily on Chinese buyers and have intensified their competition in the market, said Meng Fanzhuang, minister counselor of the Chinese embassy in Germany.

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He said there is a widely held view in the German car industry that although China saw slowing economic growth since last year, and the authorities have tightened spending on high-end vehicles for official use, there remains a huge market in the world's second-largest economy.

In 2013, German luxury car companies witnessed double-digit growth. BMW sold 363,000 vehicles, up 20 percent year-on-year. The company's sales in China surpassed those on its home turf, which stood at 262,000.

Sales of Mercedes-Benz cars in China grew by 11 percent year-on-year to 218,000, according to the embassy.

Meng said all German car companies saw double-digit growth in China in the first quarter of this year. "The outlook is still very promising."

Many companies are speeding up their investment in China. Volkswagen will invest 18.2 billion euros ($24.7 billion) in China from 2014 to 2018 to open new factories and introduce new models, according to information from the embassy. New energy cars will be a priority in sales and development strategy of German automakers.

China's automobile sales are expected to reach 17 million units this year, of which 4 million are likely to be made by German companies.