Super sports car makers look to ignite passions on the mainland

Sales rev up

Booming sales of super sports cars in China were behind the arrival of the motorsports racing events.

Analysts said that China is catching up with the United States to be the top market for super sports cars.

During the past two years, sales of super luxury vehicles saw more than 50 percent year-on-year growth, even though China's overall automobile sales growth slowed to single-digits.

Analysts forecast the trend is expected to continue for at least five to 10 years, with China's super sports car sales accounting for no more than 0.05 percent of overall sales, compared with 0.2 percent in Europe and the US.

China's increasing number of the newly rich in smaller cities will help support continued growth in the sector.

Boosted by the Chinese market, worldwide Lamborghini sales will grow by 10 percent this year despite the global economic slowdown, said Winkelmann. "China and the US are two similar top markets for us," he added.

China is Maserati's second-largest market in the world. The automaker delivered 785 sports cars to Chinese consumers in 2011.

The French ultra-super sports car maker Bugatti said it sold six super sports cars in China in the first three quarters of 2012, a sales record for the brand.

The vehicles included the Veyron Grand Sport, the Vitesse, which made its Asian debut at the Beijing auto show, and the Veyron Super Sport, the fastest street-legal production car in the world with a top speed of 431.1 km per hour.

Bugatti vehicles are recognized by Chinese luxury consumers as the world's most expensive cars, but its inventories have still sold out at each auto show in Beijing and Shanghai in recent years.

lifangfang@chinadaily.com.cn