China is a relatively new market for premium vehicles and luxury carmakers don’t know as much about their Chinese customers as they do about buyers from the U.S. and Europe.
Since China is expected to overtake the U.S. as the world’s biggest premium auto market in 2016, premium carmakers need to know more about their customers. That’s what brand studies are for, and the latest one released by the Shanghai-based Hurun Research Institute reveals some interesting facts about premium car buyers from China.
The research company held focus groups and surveyed 800 luxury car owners in 10 cities in order to find out what are the differences between owners of eight different brands. What did they find? The age of the average luxury car owner in China is 33.5 years, and the average annual household income is 984,000 yuan ($160,318).
Mercedes-Benz owners are generally successful entrepreneurs and are by far the wealthiest, with household assets of 11.3 million yuan ($1.83 million), while Infiniti drivers have the lowest average wealth, at 6.44 million yuan ($1.04 million). The study also revealed that Audi, the best-selling luxury brand in China, is associated with government bureaucrats, while BMW owners are members of the newly rich category.
People who drive a Cadillac are likely white-collar workers, while Lexus owners surprisingly have no clear attributes. Most consumers in China are buying a car for the first time, which is an advantage for newer entrants like Infiniti and Lincoln to gain market share from more established marques.
Story references: Bloomberg
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