Yeh dil maange more: Companies now focus on ‘all things premium’

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Maruti 800 king of the Indian road, the latest available data show companies are launching a disproportionate number of autos and other products at the higher end, reflective of a K-shaped recovery following the pandemic, said market researchers and senior industry executives. That’s narrowing choices at the lower end, where demand has been languishing in the past few years, they said. The number of car models available in the sub Rs 10 lakh category more than halved to 27 in the June quarter from 57 in FY19, according to data available with manufacturers. Models priced over Rs 10 lakh almost doubled to 50. Of the half a dozen or so passenger vehicles unveiled this fiscal year, only the Maruti Suzuki Fronx and the Hyundai Exter have variants priced below Rs 10 lakh. The Maruti Suzuki Jimny and the new Kia Seltos as well as the forthcoming Citroen C3 Aircross and the Honda Elevate are all tagged upward of Rs 10 lakh. In consumer durables, of the 170 televisions launched in the current calendar year, 100 were in the premium 50-inch-plus display size. According to electronics industry market researcher GfK India, the share of such premium televisions in total sales has grown almost four times since 2019 in the first six months of this year. GfK India data show the number of laptops priced above Rs 50,000 stood at 69% of the total models launched in the January-June period compared with 47% in the same period of 2019.

India Inc bets Bharat will script a recovery

In smartphones, as per market tracker Counterpoint Research, the share of models priced above Rs 15,000 in 2019 was 25%, which increased to 48% in the first half of this calendar year. “Income of consumers buying entry-level products have been