Even though China's luxury super sport car market is likely to shrink this year, Lamborghini CEO said the company will have about the same sales numbers as last year.
Stephan Winkelmann, president and CEO of Lamborghini Automobili SpA, told China Daily in an interview at the Shanghai auto show that after a continued growth in 2011 and 2012, for the first time the nation's market for such top-end high performance cars will stall or probably decline this year.
"Our market is so small there can easily be changes," he said, noting that the economic and policy environment as well as model cycles are the major factors influencing the market.
Winkelmann said he expects that the Italian sports car icon to sell "a bit more than 200 cars" in China this year, about the same number as last year.
In 2012, the company sold 234 cars in China followed by 58 in the first quarter of this year.
Lamborghini will celebrate its 50th anniversary worldwide in 2013, including in China, now its second-largest market after the US.
It brought the Lamborghini Aventador LP 720-4 50 Anniversario and Gallardo LP 560-2 50Anniversario to the Shanghai auto show to commemorate the anniversary.
"This is an opportunity for Lamborghini to further strengthen the awareness and the image of the brand here in China," he said.
Winkelmann said the company now has 19 dealerships in the country, a level it will maintain, or perhaps add only one more.
"For us now the center of gravity is the client, not having more dealerships in China," he said.
The company plans to improve staff training in the next few months before the next step of expanding the dealer network, he said.
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