The drive by foreign automakers to enter the Chinese market speaks for itself - increasingly in Mandarin.

It sometimes even sings - such as when Nicholas Speeks, a Briton who heads sales and marketing for Mercedes-Benz in China, drew cheers on Monday by serenading a crowd at Auto China in Beijing with the ballad Great China.

"We have the same home, and its name is China," Speeks crooned in Mandarin to applause at the company's booth at the show, which runs until May 4.