Germany Saved By China From Certain Death
Where would the German car industry be without China? You guessed it: In deep Scheisse. China’s insatiable demand for German cars helped the German auto industry survive the crisis stronger than ever. Germany’s new car exports to China in the first six months of this year reached €4.4b ($6b). That’s 6.1 percent of its total car exports, says the China Business Times via Gasgoo.
Germany exported about 128,000 cars to China in the first half, up 300 percent compared to 40,000 cars exported in the same period last year.
With 122,000 units exported from Germany to China, China ranks as Germany’s fifth largest car customer, following Britain (339,000 units), America (257,000 units), Italy (204,000 units) and France (180,000 units). By the end of the year, Child should have edged at least one, if not two notches up.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Well, at the very least it saved the Phaeton. Over 50% of 2010 Phaeton sales feature a manufacturer's plate in the door sill written in Mandarin.
It's interesting that the UK buys so many premium cars. And even more interesting that if Jaguar get their new 'x type' right in that BMW, Audi and Merc may well have big problems in that market. The XJ is now the market leader in the UK and the XF is there or there abouts.