Hong Kong, the city with the highest number of millionaires per sq. km and the highest number of luxury cars per sq. km in the world .The Chinese new year of Snake (2013) has started, let’s see how the year of dragon (2012) has been for the Hong Kong Automobile industry.
Hong Kong automobile market is matured and saturated by global standards, however, the sales growth picked up in 2012 with sales growing by 2.14% to 36,391 in comparison to 2011’s disappointing growth of only 0.36%. The overwhelmingly dominated part of Hong Kong’s auto market will continue to be passenger vehicles with total sales of 33,400 which is under 89% of the total vehicle sales in the state province. Sales of luxury vehicles, particularly those at the very top of the market, fell in Hong Kong over the course of 2012. The country’s market of ultra-luxury sport vehicles such as Lamborghinis, Ferrari’s and Bentley’s began to suffer the country’s economy slowdown. The sales in the first half of 2012 grew to 273 units up from 186 units in the first half of 2011. The decrease in the sales in the later part of the year can be traced back to falling mergers and acquisitions activity in Asia.
Mercedes-Benz has done better than any of its rival companies as it has done in the western markets. The Mercedes-Benz E-Class was Hong Kong’s most popular vehicle of 2012, according to the figures from city’s automotive industry association. 1916 units were sold between January – October 2012, quite comprehensively beating its rival, the BMW 5-Series which came at second place with 1549 units. These figures amply demonstrate the dominance of high end cars in Hong Kong’s car market with three of the five best sellers are luxury vehicles. The non-luxury models were the Toyota Hiace at 1537 units and the Volkswagen Golf with 1033 units.
Let’s see what the year of snake brings for Hong Kong’s automobile market, with new ultra-luxury cars like Tesla Model S being launched in the beginning of the year, we just wish better luck for Hong Kong’s automobile industry and hope that the luxury and ultra-luxury vehicle companies will come up with better strategies to cover up in the year of snake whatever they have lost in the year of Dragon.
