Profile of a Chinese luxury car owner

The profile of a Chinese luxury car owner emerged from a report by Luxury Car Brands in China 2014, made by the Hurun Research Institute.

Luxury brand car owners tend to be young, highly educated and boasting a high income, with an average age of 33.5. Of the sample, 76 percent are male and about 60 percent have the experience of living abroad, among whom 10 percent have spent more than three years overseas.

Chinese luxury car owners consider themselves self-confident, stubborn yet enthusiastic.

Males are interested in travel, good food, family activities and sports while females tend to pay attention to spas, beauty, art and the environment.

The average monthly income of the luxury car owner is 30,000 yuan ($5,000) with an average annual household income of about 1.05 million yuan.

Eight luxury car brands were included in the research due to their global appeal: Audi, BMW, Mercedes Benz, Lexus, Volvo, Land Rover, Cadillac and Infiniti.

Mercedes-Benz owners have the highest income while Infiniti owners earn the least and BMW is favored by women while more men prefer Cadillacs.

Government officials tend to choose Audis as their ideal vehicle.

"Spending money on a nice car is the first outward sign of success for many Chinese," said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of the Hurun Report.

China today has 2.9 million US dollar millionaires, and 1.09 million individuals with a personal wealth of $10 million.

Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai are the cities with the highest number of millionaires, according to the Hurun Wealth Report 2014.