(Yicai Global) April 13 -- FAW Group sold more units of its luxury brand Hongqi than the booming Volvo and Cadillac in China in the first quarter amid the quickly recovering luxury vehicle market.

Hongqi's sales almost tripled to exceed 70,000 units in the first three months of this year from a year ago, the Jilin province-based firm said in a statement this week. The company released its Hongqi H9 sedan in China in August 2020.

Volvo had sold 45,200 cars in China during the three months and Cadillac 58,200, which was more than during any first quarter ever for both of them. Toyota Motor's Lexus hasn't revealed its official figures yet but its January-February estimate is just 40,000 units.

China's luxury car sales reached 270,000 units in March, an increase of 86 percent from a year ago, according to data the China Passenger Car Association released yesterday. This shows that the luxury market is quickly recovering after the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But Hongqi has room for growth before beating international luxury brands. Its market share is still less than 10 percent, much smaller than that of other premier marques.

China's most popular upscale car brands are German and they just keep on getting more attractive. BMW took the lead by selling 230,000 vehicles in the first quarter with a more than 30 percent market share in the luxury market, up by 8.8 percentage points from last December.

No. 2 was Audi which occupied a 27.6 percent market share, rising by 7.2 percentage points. Mercedes-Benz's portion was 22.6 percent, up by 5.2 percentage points.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi