Homegrown brands gaining popularity in high-end auto market

China's premium vehicle market is witnessing a rapid shift as homegrown brands break longstanding price and brand barriers in the ultra-luxury sedan segment, and put an end to the dominance of traditional foreign marques.

Priced between 708,000 yuan ($100,947) and 1.018 million yuan, the Maextro S800, a battery electric ultra-luxury sedan co-developed by Huawei and JAC Group, has defied expectations that high prices would constrain demand.

As of Tuesday, the model's cumulative deliveries had exceeded 10,000 units, within just 202 days since its market debut, setting a new record for China's ultra-luxury new energy sedans.

Before the launch of the Maextro S800, the domestic luxury sedan market above 700,000 yuan had long been dominated by established foreign brands such as Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and BMW. However, the market has shown a rather sharp shift than ever since September, with deliveries of the Maextro S800 having surpassed the combined sales of Porsche AG's Panamera — one of the segment's longtime bestsellers — and the BMW 7 Series, according to a recent Bloomberg report citing data from ECC Intelligence.

The strong performance reflects a broader rise of Chinese brands in the high-end passenger vehicle market. Data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed that in the first 11 months of this year, Chinese-brand passenger vehicle sales reached 18.978 million units, up 19.4 percent year-on-year, accounting for 69.6 percent of total passenger vehicle sales. In the new energy passenger vehicle segment priced above 300,000 yuan, Chinese brands now command more than 80 percent of the market.

Several domestic automakers have already established a strong foothold at the premium end. From January to November, the AITO marque delivered 376,700 vehicles, with an average transaction price of about 400,000 yuan. NIO sold around 277,900 vehicles during the same period, up 45.6 percent year-on-year, with an average selling price of 342,000 yuan, exceeding that of some traditional luxury brands.

The rapid ascent of domestic players has put direct pressure on foreign luxury automakers. During the January-November period, BMW sold 528,000 vehicles in China, down 14.7 percent year-on-year. Mercedes-Benz sold 518,000 units, down 18.7 percent, and Audi also recorded sales of 518,000 units, down 13.3 percent. China, once Porsche's key profit driver, saw its sales fall from a peak of 95,700 units in 2021 to 37,200 units in the first 11 months of this year.

"Young high-net-worth consumers who once supported luxury spending are now calculating every yuan more carefully," said Alexander Pollich, president and CEO of Porsche China, during an earlier interview. He noted that local brands benefit from highly integrated supply chains and significant cost advantages, while their product competitiveness has improved rapidly. "Overall, we are facing a very challenging period, one that almost all multinational manufacturers are confronting," he said.

According to Ji Xuehong, director of the automotive industry innovation research center at North China University of Technology, the cooling of foreign luxury vehicle brands is largely driven by the rising quality of domestic premium brands.

"At similar price points, Chinese high-end brands can usually offer more intelligent features and higher configurations," Ji said. "In a market where consumers are becoming increasingly rational, while some still favor imported brands, more buyers are prioritizing overall experience, service quality and how well vehicles meet their actual needs."