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As of January 12, first-tier luxury brands BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi have all announced new car sales in China in 2023.

According to the Automotive Industry concern list, BMW continued to lead Mercedes-Benz and Audi with sales of 825000 vehicles in 2023, followed by Mercedes-Benz and Audi at the bottom. What is different from 2022 is that all three car companies have achieved year-on-year growth in 2023. For comparison, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi fell 6.4%, 0.9% and 9.2% respectively in 2022 compared with the same period last year.

According to the data, BMW Group delivered a total of 825000 BMW and MINI vehicles in the Chinese market in 2023, an increase of 4.2% over the same period last year, making it the top brand selling BBA in China in 2023. Among them, the BMW brand pure electric model sales performance is strong, the annual delivery of nearly 100000 vehicles, has become an important pillar of BMW's overall sales growth.

Among the subdivided models, retail data show that the top three models sold in China in 2023 are BMW 3-Series, BMW 5-Series and BMW X3, which are 146600, 136700 and 116500 respectively. BMW i3, BMW iX3 and BMW iX1 sold 53400, 39400 and 685 cars respectively.

In recent years, BMW has invested heavily in the field of electric vehicles and accelerated the electrification transformation. BMW Group believes that the strong demand for BMW electric cars in China will pave the way for its follow-up models. According to the plan, 2025 will be an important node of BMW Group's electrification strategy, when it will usher in a "new generation" product array; by the end of 2025, BMW Group plans to deliver 2 million pure electric vehicles worldwide. It is expected that by 2030, at least 50% of the group's global sales will come from pure electric models.

Audi, for its part, has lagged behind BMW and Mercedes-Benz in sales in previous years, and 2023 is no exception.

According to data, Audi delivered a total of 729000 vehicles in China in 2023, an increase of 14.7% over the same period last year. It doesn't sell as much as BMW-Benz, but it has the highest year-on-year increase among the three BBA automakers.

Among the subdivided models, the retail sales of Audi A6L, Audi Q5L and Audi A4L all exceeded 130000, accounting for 181800, 139500 and 134800 respectively, followed by Audi A3 and Q3 with 64000 and 52000 respectively.

Wen Zeyue, president of Audi China, said: "Audi showed strong market performance in China in 2023, and customer delivery increased again, proving the success of Audi's'in China, for China 'strategy. With the concerted efforts of joint ventures, distributors, suppliers and Audi teams, Audi has laid a solid foundation for aggressive development in 2024."

According to the data, Audi's pure electric e-tron series models will be delivered in China in 2023 with a total of 31000 vehicles. So far, Audi's new energy vehicles sold in China include Q2L e-tron, A6L e-tron, Q4 e-tron, e-tron, Q5L e-tron and so on, but the sales performance is not excellent. Retail data show that the highest sales of Audi new energy vehicles in 2023 is Q4 e-tron, which is 23400, while the sales of Q5 e-tron, e-tron and Q2L e-tron are 5207, 1969 and 250 respectively, which is a far cry from the mainstream sales of new energy vehicles in the car market.

For Audi, 2023 is a key year for the transformation of its new energy products. Wen Zeyue has said, "from 2023, Audi will launch the largest product offensive in global history, which is also the most important offensive for future transformation." According to the plan, Audi will launch 20 models worldwide in the next three years, 10 of which are pure electric vehicles. In the short term, Audi will debut the Q6 e-tron globally in the first quarter of this year, which is Audi's first electric vehicle based on the PPE architecture of Volkswagen Group, built on the same platform as Porsche Macan EV; in addition, Audi FAW New Energy vehicle Co., Ltd. will start pre-production of the PPE platform model at the beginning of this year, and will officially put into production of Audi Q6L e-tron model by the end of the year.

Finally, let's take a look at Mercedes-Benz. Mercedes-Benz will continue to rank between BMW and Audi with 765000 vehicles in 2023, up 1.7% from a year earlier. Among them, Mercedes-Benz C-Class retail sales are the highest, with 157100 vehicles, followed by Mercedes-Benz E-Class and Mercedes-Benz GLC, which are 143500 and 114000 respectively, and Mercedes-Benz GLB and Mercedes-Benz A-Class are 64800 and 46900 respectively.

In terms of new energy vehicles, Mercedes-Benz currently has a total layout of EQE, EQB, EQE SUV, EQA and EQC models in China. From the perspective of the layout of the electric transformation, compared with BMW and Audi, Mercedes-Benz is advancing faster in the electric transformation, but it is a pity that the sales of Mercedes-Benz EQ electric vehicles are in the doldrums in the domestic market. The retail sales of new energy vehicles in 2023 have not exceeded 10,000, and the highest sales volume is EQE, which is 8471, while that of EQB, EQE SUV, EQA and EQC is 6667, 6120, 4012 and 169 respectively.

Ola K ä llenius, chairman of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, said in an interview with German media that Mercedes-Benz will make China, the world's largest car market, the center of the next-generation electric vehicle program starting in 2025. According to the plan, Mercedes-Benz will launch or launch 15 new / new generation products in 2024, including new pure electric G-class off-road vehicles, new Maybach EQS pure electric SUV, new CLE family, new long wheelbase GLC SUV plug-in hybrid models, new long wheelbase E-class plug-in hybrid models and so on.

Taken together, BBA sales have increased to varying degrees in 2023, especially the Audi brand. At present, BBA are accelerating the transformation to the new energy track, but it should be noted that with the high-end development of independent brands, the rapid development of high-end electric vehicles is changing the layout of the luxury car market, while the traditional luxury car market where BBA is located is becoming more and more competitive.

From a short-term point of view, the tripartite situation of BBA is difficult to shake in a short time. After all, BBA still occupies a large market share, but as a traditional German luxury brand, BBA has not yet had a good-looking data performance in new energy products. Under the continuous improvement of China's new energy vehicle penetration and independent high-end promotion, how to launch market competitive new energy products is an urgent task for BBA.

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