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Car sales in the first quarter were 3.672 million, down 42.4 per cent from a year earlier, according to the China Automobile Association. Affected by the epidemic, there is a great downward pressure on the domestic car market in the first quarter of 2020. in this context, although luxury brands outperform the overall market, the downward trend is still inevitable.

Collate the data to get the ranking of luxury brands in China in the first quarter. According to the ranking, Mercedes-Benz (including Smart brand) won the championship with 136189 vehicles, while BMW (including MINI brand) was 9907 vehicles behind Mercedes-Benz, temporarily ranking second with 126282 vehicles. In addition, Tesla stood out on the luxury brand list, with first-quarter sales up 73.0 per cent year-on-year to 18588 vehicles.

Mercedes-Benz leads BMW by nearly 10,000 vehicles in the first quarter, which has a lot to do with Beijing Mercedes-Benz's early resumption of work. In early February this year, when the upper and lower reaches of the automobile industry were almost paralyzed, Beijing Mercedes-Benz decided to apply to the Tianjin local government for early resumption of work, considering the huge losses caused by the increasing production stoppage. This also made it into the top 10 of narrow passenger car sales list in February and March this year.

BMW sold 126282 vehicles in the first quarter, down 25.4% from the same period last year, although it fell 25.4%, but it was still slightly better than the market level. BMW sales were low in February this year. After entering March, with the resumption of work and production around the country, BMW's operation is also gradually back on track. It is understood that in March, the BMW 5-Series became the top seller in the medium and large luxury car market with a score of 9592 vehicles. In addition, the BMW 3-Series and BMW X3 sold 8033 and 7828 vehicles in March, respectively.

Among the first-tier luxury brands, the Audi brand performance obviously fell short of expectations. Its sales fell 22.5 per cent to 114897 vehicles in the first quarter from a year earlier, reaching only 16.41 per cent of its annual sales target of 700000 vehicles as of that month. As for the reasons for the decline in sales, in addition to being affected by the epidemic, it has a lot to do with the market occupation of Mercedes-Benz and BMW, which poses a great threat to the Audi brand in the long run.

Among second-tier luxury brands, Lexus overtook Cadillac to top the list of second-tier luxury brands with 32991 vehicles, with a 12.7% year-on-year decline lower than that of other second-tier luxury brands. Lexus has been doing better in China in recent years, with sales rising 25.0 per cent year-on-year to 200521 vehicles in 2019, just 13196 vehicles behind Cadillac.

Cadillac, overtaken by Lexus, ranked fourth with 27589 vehicles. As a luxury brand with a high degree of domestication, it declined by 37.1% in the first quarter. In addition to the decline in sales caused by the epidemic, it also has something to do with the listing of Cadillac XT5 and CT6. On April 8th, the Cadillac CT4 was officially launched, equipped with a new matching 2.0T variable cylinder turbocharged engine and a vertical 8-speed manual integrated gearbox.

Volvo brand sales fell 25.4% year-on-year to 23678 vehicles in the first quarter, lagging behind Cadillac by only 3911 vehicles and performing well. However, what supports its sales volume is the discount range of its terminal price, such as S60, S90, XC60, XC90 and so on.

Tesla may threaten the status of second-tier luxury brands. Since the mass production of the domestic Model 3 last year, Tesla's sales in China have continued to grow, rising 73.0 per cent to 18588 vehicles in the quarter compared with the same period last year, successfully surpassing brands such as Jaguar Land Rover, Lincoln and Infiniti. In the second half of the year, with the deepening of the localization of Model 3, its price in China is expected to decline further, which will boost its sales growth to a certain extent.

The three luxury brands closely following Tesla are Jaguar Land Rover, Lincoln and Infiniti. Among them, Jaguar Land Rover's quarterly sales fell 38.1 per cent to 13634, Lincoln's January-March sales fell 36.0 per cent to 6768 and Infiniti's sales fell 48.7 per cent to 5071.

Overall, the epidemic led to a decline in sales of many brands in the first quarter of this year, which is inevitable, but luxury brands have sufficient supply chain and brand influence compared with ordinary brands, so they are more able to withstand pressure in the epidemic. Among the first-tier luxury brands, the gap between Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi is gradually widening. Among the second-tier luxury brands, Lexus surpassed Cadillac to take the top spot, while the domestically made Tesla has also become a spoiler of second-tier luxury brands, which is likely to threaten Volvo's position. In addition, Japanese Infiniti and Acura are becoming less and less competitive in luxury brands, becoming marginal brands in the luxury department. Infiniti ranked 10th in the season, while Acura has fallen out of the top 10.

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