Luxury car sales clock new record in Jan-Jun

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₹1.7 crore and the EQB at close to ₹80 lakh. The two products together represent 3-4% of our total sales, which was at over 300 units in H12023", Santosh Iyer, managing director and chief executive, Mercedes Benz India, said in an interview. “H2 will see far stronger growth as the availability of BEVs increase.

We will be able to deliver more cars. The waiting periods for both cars are currently at 3-4 months. With improved availability, BEV growth should be even better in H2." Increasing participation of a new class of consumers, comprising corporate sector employees, the youth, and wealthy entrepreneurs led to higher demand for luxury cars.

In fact, the growth for luxury vehicles has been faster than the overall passenger vehicle segment. Mercedes Benz India has seen an 8-10% increase in the flow of new inquiries for its models in the first half of the year. “The luxury car market growth should be higher than passenger vehicles and penetration of luxury cars to the PV market should marginally improve from 0.9% in 2022, to 1% this year," Iyer added.

Audi India’s sales of top-end models, including the Q7, Q8, A8 L, S5 Sportback, RS5, RS Q8 and Audi RS e-tron GT rose by 127% in H1 from a year earlier. The carmaker is preparing to launch the Q8 e-tron, its most recent BEV offering, for the Indian market. BEVs account for 3-4% of the company’s portfolio, almost at the same levels as last year.

“The growth has been a combination of multiple factors. One, of course, is the far better availability of semi-conductor chips compared to last year. We also launched the Q3 and Q3 Sportback in the beginning of the year.