US back in fast lane for luxury cars

After years of profiting from the mainland's appetite for high-priced toys, makers of hyper-luxury cars are shifting their focus back to more traditional markets such as the US and Japan.

"The US is really getting back on track and getting more important for us," Lamborghini chief executive Stephan Winkelmann said in Tokyo. On the mainland, "there is a slowdown in high-end luxury", he said.

American demand for Lamborghini's US$400,000-plus Aventador flagship was growing at a pace reminiscent of the years before the 2008 global financial crisis, Winkelmann said. And as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe kick-started the economy, Japan also stood out, he said.

Concerns about the mainland, echoed by Ferrari and Rolls-Royce since last year, show it is no longer the driver of growth it was three years ago when it pulled the world out of recession. A slowing economy and a government push against lavish spending have undermined sales of luxury goods ranging from supercars to Prada bags and Bordeaux wines.

"Luxury carmakers are suffering, and a lot of high-class restaurants that serve expensive dinners are suffering, too," said Andreas Graef, a consultant at AT Kearney in Shanghai. "Clearly China's millionaires and billionaires are more cautious of how they show off their wealth, from expensive watches to expensive liquors."

The United States was the strongest market globally, and mainland demand for luxury cars was unlikely to ever experience the kind of expansion it saw over the past several years, Graef said.

After dropping 29 per cent in 2009 to 2,500 units, sales of vehicles costing more than two million yuan (HK$2.5 million) surged to a record 9,000 in 2011 before dropping back to 8,000 last year, according to AT Kearney.