Automakers see western China's market potential

Philippe Verneuil, president of Michelin China

Philippe Verneuil, president of Michelin China

With the Chinese government's Go West strategy, we also put more attention and efforts to the western region, and away from the coast. Michelin is going to more smaller cities in the west where we see a very strong development trend.

A very important commitment to the west is that we will hold our 12th Michelin Challenge Bibendum in Chengdu this November.

China will be the first country to have the global event three times as we promote clean, safe, connected, accessible, affordable and sustainable road mobility.

We picked Chengdu this year not only for the market potential and growing trends in the industry, but also for the special lifestyle.

We will talk about more issues than before, like the connection between vehicles and the city, and invite more participants from other industries, for example in IT and energy.

Olaf Kastner, president and CEO of BMW Brilliance

The market in western China is growing rapidly and BMW attaches great importance to this region.

In terms of products, we have introduced the world's most intelligent all-wheel drive technology - BMW xDrive - on our first locally produced 3 and 5 Series sedans. Thanks to supreme driving capabilities in all weather and road conditions, these are particularly suitable for customers in the western region. In addition, this time we have selected Chengdu for pre-launch of the new BMW 316 Li, which will definitely become a new volume driver in the 3 Series family.

BMW is also improving its service. So far it has 82 authorized dealerships and service outlets in the western region. In addition, it has four training bases - in Chengdu, Wuhan and Kunming and Zhengzhou - a guarantee for the high-quality service of dealers in this region. We are confident about the future development of the western region.

Daniel Kirchert, managing director of Infiniti China

Chengdu is the brightest pearl in Southwest China and it has special meaning to us.

At this time last year we started the era of Infiniti Q in Chengdu. And today we are presenting another landmark model - Infiniti Q50L. It is an upgraded version of the Infiniti Q50 2.0T and marks the first achievement of our localization campaign. Since it hit the market in April, the car has become one of the most popular models in the segment of luxury sport cars. In addition, the Q50 2.0T equipped with a turbocharged engine also became available in July after we unveiled the Q50 3.7 and 3.5 Hybrid models.

Infitini has made great breakthroughs - surging sales, excellent products, creative campaigns and an expanding sales network. A total of 16,254 Infiniti models were sold in the first seven months, a 116 percent rise from the same period last year. That has made Infiniti a luxury auto brand with the fastest growth in the Chinese market. JD Power ranked Infiniti second on the Chinese auto sales satisfaction index .