Audi spokeswoman Esther Bahne said, “In China a rather high pricing level is maintained due to consistently high levels of demand. Incentive levels throughout the premium market are low.” He stated thus while declining to remark in detail on Chinese programs in advance of Volkswagen’s full first-quarter earnings report.

Geely settled to buy Volvo for $1.8 billion from Ford Motor Co. on March 28. The Chinese auto manufacturer has ideas to spend $900 million as part of a turnaround of the un-remunerative Gothenburg, Sweden-based brand. The enlargement includes Volvo’s 1st Chinese factory and a goal to sell 200,000 cars in the country in five years. Volvo now has 6% of Chinese luxury sales.

Mercedes will launch a longer E-Class in Beijing this week. This is the first model formulated only for China, while BMW will have a continued 5-Series, the only car built for this specific market.

The cut down in Audi’s market contribution came after Daimler and Munich-based BMW constituted joint ventures over the previous seven years to construct cars topically. Audi has been operating in China for more than two decades. Mercedes and BMW were appended to the government’s leverage list only last year. Daimler’s Chinese sales reached two-fold in the first quarter thus making it the top- developing luxury auto manufacturer in the country. The Stuttgart, Germany-based producer, presently No. 3 in China, is directing deliverances to over 100,000 vehicles this year which is 70,100 more than in 2009.

As the three German competitors punch it out, Volvo Car Corp.’s programs to develop in China with the aid of new proprietor Zhejiang Geely Holding Co. may show the way to cutting down of prices for luxury cars in China, a market in which the luxury automakers depend to boost profit.