Supercars with Chinese face

Clients also differ from one place to another within China. While those in the north prefer darker colors, people on the southeast coast go for bright and flashy hues, Liang says.

The ebb in the Chinese auto market has affected the premium sector too, however, and Lamborghini's 70 percent growth rate in 2011 may slow down to between 10 and 15 percent this year, Liang says.

But the super-luxury brands are more insulated from the macro-economic conditions, he says, as the very affluent have accumulated such a vast fortune that they can continue to spend lavishly.

The great resilience of luxury cars can be seen in the sales figures. Last year, the number of imported-car dealers in China increased by 40 percent to more than 1,200, according to China State Administration for Industry and Commerce.

The Lamborghini brand was bought by Audi AG in 1998, becoming a member of the Volkswagen family, which also includes Porsche and Bentley.

Automobili Lamborghini at the Beijing Auto Show in April. The luxury car maker's sales in China accounted for 20 percent of its global sales last year. [Photo / China Daily]

Auto consulting company LMC Automotive estimates that sales of luxury cars this year will exceed 1.1 million, compared with 970,000 last year, and the number will double by 2015.

Another bonus for a super-premium vehicle is that there is no direct competitor, says Christian Mastro, general manager of Automobili Lamborghini Asia-Pacific.

"Super-rich people can have a fleet of cars in their garage, as long as they like them," he says.

The decline in growth number is also because of the relatively small and low demand of a few hundred units a year, Liang says.

"So once our target customers have bought Lamborghinis, it is very hard for us to generate as high a growth rate as when we first entered China.

"In the long run, the growth rate will level out and stabilize, but China no doubt will continue to be one of the most important markets for Lamborghini."

Unlike Audi and Mercedes-Benz, which focus on the larger group of upper middle-class, Lamborghini targets a much smaller group, and is therefore more dependent on local dealers who have a better knowledge of the elite bands.

Some dealers not only sell Lamborghini, but also private jets and yachts.

The brand has already set up 14 dealerships in the first-tier cities, and aims to establish another six by the end of the year, mainly in central and western cities such as Xi'an and Changsha, Liang says.

"The market frontier is moving westward," he says. "In traditional markets, like in coastal cities, the sales volume is very stable, while in the second to third-tier cities, the base number is small, but the growth potential is huge."

wangchao@chinadaily.com.cn