Luxury buyers move from diesel to electric

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

The share of diesel in total sales of luxury vehicles in the local market declined to 35% last year, from about 80% five years, even as buyers continued to shift to feature-rich SUVs. Sales of electric cars, meanwhile, increased to account for 6% of overall volumes in the segment — thrice of that in the mass market — with rich young, aspiring consumers emerging as front runners in adoption of clean technologies.

Ease of installing charging points at homes or offices for more affluent buyers, who can also buy electric as a second or third vehicle has been fuelling demand for these at the upper end of the market.
The “better than expected demand” in a country, where charging infrastructure is yet not widely accessible, has surprised carmakers like BMW, Audi and Mercedes Benz who have lined up more than half a dozen models for launch in the space in the next one year hoping to capitalise on latent demand.

Market leader Mercedes Benz India has already commenced local assembly of EV EQS 580 at its facility in Pune (first assembly plant outside Germany for EVs in the company), while others are fast-tracking feasibility studies for the same to bring down costs of electric vehicles to expand footprint in this fast-evolving space on the country.
Balbir Singh Dhillon, Head, Audi India told ET, once the share of diesel in sales of luxury vehicles dip to 20%, it is unlikely to be viable for any manufacturer to continue to offer the fuel option to customers.

“The share of diesel in vehicle sales is already on a decline. Going ahead, we will see a transition to petrol and electric vehicles in the market, which was earlier dominated by diesel”, Dhillon informed.