BMW closes gap with Audi in China with customer driving courses across Mongolian desert

BMW has narrowed its market-share gap in China with Audi since starting driving courses in 2006 to attract new buyers and build brand appeal.

According to KHABAR KHODRO, Rising numbers of wealthy Chinese are boosting sales even as overall vehicle deliveries slow this year after the government imposed purchase restrictions to curb congestion.

BMW's share of the country's high-end sedan segment has risen to 24 percent this year from 21 percent in 2006, while Audi's has declined to 28 percent from 50 percent, according to Munich-based Roland Berger Strategy Consultants.

Test drives and cross-country expeditions showcase new technology and expand customer interest, said Lu Yi, head of sales and marketing at BMW's China import unit, in a July 19 interview in Ordos.

The programs also help take motorists like Tom Liang, who lives in Beijing, outside their mostly urban driving environments. Biejing is tied with Mexico City as having the world's worst commute in an International Business Machines Corp. survey last year.

For two days in Inner Mongolia, Liang took a BMW X5 SUV up 100-meter sand dunes and across rocky river beds past camel cemeteries.

"Driving in the desert brings out all the best functions of the car," said Liang, 36, who attended BMW's first off-road terrain course held this month in Ordos, northern China. "This training opened my eyes to what my X5 can do."

Lu said: "People want to have technology, they want to have service, and they want to have a car ready to express themselves. You have to find unique new ideas."

Genghis Khan

In Ordos, home to a mausoleum for 13th-century Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan, drivers pay 20,000 yuan ($3,100) for the two-day BMW off-road driving course. They learn to decrease the tire pressure to gain more traction, to continue climbing and accelerate up a slope no matter how bumpy the terrain, and to dig out the front and back wheels when stuck in sand.

BMW will increase its China sales by 48 percent this year, outpacing Audi's projected 18 percent growth, and 44 percent for Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz, according to estimates by Westlake Village, California-based J.D. Power & Associates.

Total vehicle deliveries will grow about 5 percent this year after surging 32 percent to a record in 2010, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Luxury-car sales in the world's largest auto market will expand about 30 percent this year, J.D. Power estimates.

BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer raised his global sales forecast July 12 on buoyant demand from international markets. The automaker now anticipates sales of more than 1.6 million vehicles this year, up from a previous forecast of deliveries in excess of 1.5 million units.