The New York Times below reports on a coup in the auto industry and a poignant moment for China; Porsche unveiled its entry into the luxury sedan market in China on Sunday night, at the eve of the Shanghai auto show, marking the first time that Porsche has entered a new market segment at an auto show outside Europe or North America.

Auto sales rose 10 percent last month in China to a record, and exceeded sales in the United States for the third month in a row as the world’s largest single-country market. That has prompted automakers from around the world to pay particular attention to the Chinese market, with a range of models to be introduced here.

Continued, as excerpted from the New York Times.com:

Subcompacts and very small and simple minivans are the fastest-growing segments of the Chinese market. But China has also emerged as the world’s second-largest market after the United States for a growing number of luxury car brands, and become the focus of energetic marketing by luxury manufacturers.

The global economic slowdown, which trimmed Chinese growth to a still respectable 6.1 percent in the first quarter, has hurt luxury car sales, although less than in many other markets. Luxury car sales fell 8 percent in the first two months of this year compared with the period a year ago, according to the research firm J. D. Power and Associates.

“This year there will be some impact, but when the economy recovers, this segment will also grow,” said Yale Zhang, a Chinese market forecaster in the Shanghai office of CSM Worldwide, a global automotive consulting firm.

Not one of the models to be unveiled at the Shanghai auto show, which starts on Monday, has drawn more discussion in the auto industry than Porsche’s entry, the Panamera. It is Porsche’s first sedan after more than six decades of manufacturing sports coupes and, since 2002, the Cayenne car-based sport utility vehicle.

Klaus Berning, Porsche’s executive vice president for sales and marketing, acknowledged that the timing for entering a new market segment was difficult but said the company had received enough orders that it expected to meet its goal of selling 20,000 a year. “The current orders already make us very comfortable and optimistic,” he said.

Company executives said that the car would start at $89,800 in the United States and more, sometimes much more, in countries with higher taxes. The turbo version with a V-8 engine will cost 2.5 million yuan, or $366,000, in China, which has stiff import taxes and heavy taxes on family vehicles with large engines.

In Asian countries like China with high levels of income inequality, wealthy car buyers frequently have chauffeurs. While Porsche purists tend to believe that the driving experience is the whole point of buying a Porsche, offering a spacious back seat could make the Panamera competitive as a chauffeured car.

In an indication of how far the Panamera is from Porsche’s traditional offerings, the company estimates that 90 percent of the car’s buyers will be new to Porsche.