BEIJING, March 18 — Volkswagen AG’s Bentley Motors luxury unit expects to reverse last year’s decline in China deliveries after introducing a variation of its Flying Spur saloon next month.

“We’re sure that we’re able to, let’s say, make an improvement over last year,” Ricky Tay, Bentley China’s managing director, said in an interview in Beijing yesterday. The Flying Spur V8, with the lowest starting price among Bentley’s four-door sedans, “will open up a new avenue to the luxury brand,” he said.

Bentley will open three to four dealerships in China this year, adding to the 36 it currently has, as the company targets more entrepreneurs, Tay said. The carmaker, which will introduce the new Flying Spur at an auto show in Beijing next month, expects to maintain its share of more than 30 per cent in China’s ultra-luxury market, he said.

The Flying Spur starts at 3.94 million yuan (RM2.092 million) in China, according to prices compiled by Autohome Inc, an online provider of automobile information in the country.

China is Crewe, England-based Bentley’s second-largest market, trailing only the US. The carmaker sells more Flying Spurs and its flagship Mulsanne limousine in the Asian country than anywhere else in the world, according to the company.

Still, Bentley deliveries in China fell 2.8 per cent last year, after rising 23 per cent the previous 12 months and almost doubling in 2011, as the carmaker went through model changes, Tay said. Globally, deliveries climbed 19 per cent in 2013. — Bloomberg