BRAND NEW BMW 3 SERIES.

BMW Stretches 3-Series in Top Down China Luxury Expansion:

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) is making a bigger version of its popular 3-Series sedan in a bid to tap into Chinese car buyers’ taste for larger cars and lure them away from the likes of General Motors Co.

The stretch 3-Series, made uniquely for the Chinese market, is 11 centimeters (4.3 inches) longer than the regular model and is part of a broader effort by German luxury-car makers to sell more cars targeted toward first-time buyers in China, after years of focusing on selling their priciest models.

“The premium market here is developing from the top downward,” Ian Robertson, BMW’s sales chief, said this week at the Beijing auto show. “Over time, you will see the smaller segments growing more rapidly.”

The small car market in China is currently dominated by high-volume manufacturers like General Motors Co. (GM) (GM) BMW, Daimler AG (DAI)’s Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen AG (VOW)’s Audi are expanding into that market to boost growth and lessen reliance on their biggest models like the 7-Series, half of which are sold in China, as overall car sales in the country slipped 1.3 percent in the first quarter.

Larger sedans and sport-utility vehicles accounted for at least 70 percent of premium car sales in China last year compared with 40 percent in Germany, according to Bernstein Research.