SHANGHAI: German automaker BMW will pay 5.1 billion yuan ($820 million) to auto dealers in China who pressured the world’s top luxury carmaker to share the cost of overstocked showrooms.
According to BMW’s main Chinese dealership group, car sales growth in China, the world’s largest auto market, was expected to halve to 7pc in 2014, bringing demands for compensation from dealer groups which had bought vehicles on expectations of rapid growth. BMW has been hit by a slowing Chinese economy where cut-throat competition leave its ageing product range increasingly exposed.
