(Yicai Global) March 28 -- FAW-Volkswagen Audi, the Audi-marque joint venture between China’s FAW Group and Germany’s Volkswagen, is offering financial assistance to Chinese car dealers to help them shift part of their inventory.

Audi distributors will receive a 2 percent subsidy on each domestically produced fuel-powered auto in stock since Nov. 30 that is sold this month, Yicai Global learned from a notice issued by FAW Audi Sales, the German luxury car brand’s vendor in China.

The inventory-to-sales ratio of luxury car brands in China rose to 1.4 percent in February from 1.3 percent in January, according to a survey by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. The pressure on the luxury vehicle market has intensified this year, the CAAM added, noting that carmakers should pay more attention to distributors’ profits and make sure they have enough profit margin.

The price cut for the Q5L is close to CNY100,000 (USD14,535) or 20 percent, and that for some A6L models is CNY90,000 (USD13,080), staff at an Audi store in Beijing told Yicai Global. Some cars that have been on the books for over three months are discounted by over 30 percent, they added.

Audi’s car sales in China rose 1.8 percent to 40,000 last month from a year earlier, but its market share shrank 4 percentage points. Meanwhile, the sales of rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz jumped 41.6 percent and 43.3 percent to 55,000 and 59,000, respectively, with their market shares both widening by 1 percentage point.

Editors: Zhang Yushuo, Futura Costaglione