The harder they fall, the higher they bounce. Sales of premium cars and SUVs fell more steeply than “volume” brands after the financial crisis. Globally, the former’s share of the light vehicle market shrank from 8.3 per cent to 7.6 per cent between 2008 and 2009, according to LMC Automotive. Now, though, this end of the market is enjoying a faster recovery. Its sales are expected to be up about 11 per cent this year and about 6 to 8 per cent in 2012 – compared with gains of 4 to 5 per cent for the market generally. That is welcome news for German automakers such as BMW, which yesterday posted best-ever sales in 2011, up 14.2 per cent at 1.67m vehicles.
高檔車市場跌得越狠，反彈得就越猛。金融危機之后，高檔車和運動型多功能車(SUV)的銷量比“量產”品牌汽車下跌幅度更大。根據LMC Automotive的數據，全球范圍來講，2008-09年間高檔車和SUV在輕型車市場的份額由8.3%降到7.6%。不過，眼下高檔車和SUV市場的復蘇速度卻比量產品牌汽車要快：2011年，這塊市場的銷量預計增長了約11%，2012年將增長6%至8%，而整個市場的增幅為4%至5%。這對于寶馬(BMW)等德國汽車制造商來說是個好消息。寶馬昨天公布，2011年銷量達167萬輛，為有史以來的最高水平，增幅為14.2%。