Chinese Consumers Embrace Bulky, Pricey SUVs
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International automakers are cashing in on China's enthusiasm for sports utility vehicles. Annual sales of SUVs in China exceeded two million for the first time last year.
China, the world's biggest auto market, increasingly wants the world's biggest cars, and sales of sports utility vehicles, or SUVs, are more than doubling every two years.
In 2011, Chinese consumers bought 2.1 million SUVs, up more than 25 percent from 2010.
Far from the country's mountainous hinterland, SUVs of all shapes and sizes are often seen in crowded cities like Beijing, where status-conscious urbanites can sit high above the other traffic.
Mercedes-Benz is one company reaping the benefits, having sold 54,000 SUVs in the country in 2011.
With sales of the gas-guzzlers accounting for 27 percent of all Mercedes-Benz's 2011 China sales, the Mercedes China president and CEO says the trend is likely to continue.
[Klaus Maier, CEO, Mercedes-Benz (China)]:
"I would assume that this trend will continue. I cannot see any end. I would assume, for the next 10 years and especially for luxury car brands it's very interesting because we can see, for example, a lot of our SUVs customers have three cars in their car park, which means perhaps they have their first limousine in their car park and now they go for SUVs. Secondly, we see more and more female customers are going for our SUVs."
International automakers from Buick and Ford to Honda and Volkswagen are scrambling for a piece of the action, hiking up competition.
Decades of fast economic growth have swelled the ranks of China's rich, and those customers are drawn to European luxury brands.
Fifty-four-year-old SUV enthusiast Li Zhi once owned five of the gas guzzling giants, which he and his friends like to drive through the narrow 'hutong' alleyways that cover much of central Beijing.
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International automakers are cashing in on China's enthusiasm for sports utility vehicles. Annual sales of SUVs in China exceeded two million for the first time last year.
China, the world's biggest auto market, increasingly wants the world's biggest cars, and sales of sports utility vehicles, or SUVs, are more than doubling every two years.
In 2011, Chinese consumers bought 2.1 million SUVs, up more than 25 percent from 2010.
Far from the country's mountainous hinterland, SUVs of all shapes and sizes are often seen in crowded cities like Beijing, where status-conscious urbanites can sit high above the other traffic.
Mercedes-Benz is one company reaping the benefits, having sold 54,000 SUVs in the country in 2011.
With sales of the gas-guzzlers accounting for 27 percent of all Mercedes-Benz's 2011 China sales, the Mercedes China president and CEO says the trend is likely to continue.
[Klaus Maier, CEO, Mercedes-Benz (China)]:
"I would assume that this trend will continue. I cannot see any end. I would assume, for the next 10 years and especially for luxury car brands it's very interesting because we can see, for example, a lot of our SUVs customers have three cars in their car park, which means perhaps they have their first limousine in their car park and now they go for SUVs. Secondly, we see more and more female customers are going for our SUVs."
International automakers from Buick and Ford to Honda and Volkswagen are scrambling for a piece of the action, hiking up competition.
Decades of fast economic growth have swelled the ranks of China's rich, and those customers are drawn to European luxury brands.
Fifty-four-year-old SUV enthusiast Li Zhi once owned five of the gas guzzling giants, which he and his friends like to drive through the narrow 'hutong' alleyways that cover much of central Beijing.
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