China sales numbers of the German Three over the first six month of 2013 have just arrived, showing Audi is the big winner and Mercedes-Benz a small loser. The numbers are sales-totals for the brands, including sales of locally made cars and sales of imported cars.

Audi sold 228.139 cars, up 17.7% compared to the first six month of 2012. BMW sold 170.730 cars, up 15.7%. Mercedes-Benz lags far behind and continues to lose in China, it sold only 98.941 cars, down 0.5%.

Audi cars are made in China by the FAW-Volkswagen joint venture, BMW cars by Brilliance-BMW and Mercedes-Benz cars by Beijing-Benz.

Audi was helped by strong sales of the locally-made Audi A4L and Audi Q5. BMW was helped by strong sales of the locally-made BMW 3Li. Mercedes-Benz was hampered by weak sales of the locally-made C-Class and E-Class. The only plus for Benz was the locally-made GLK which over the first six months accounted for almost 40% of sales for the Beijing-Benz joint venture.