Daimler has opened a research and development center in Beijing tasked with further tuning its Mercedes-Benz brand to wealthy Chinese tastes and closing the sales gap with Audi and BMW brand.

Mercedes’s China sales rose 30.5 percent to 203,485 in the first nine months, trailing BMW, which sold 335,863, a rise of 18 percent. Sales of luxury market leader Audi rose 16 percent to 415,704 in the same period.