Young India to drive next decade of luxury car growth
New Delhi: The luxury car segment in India, representing only around 1% of the rapidly expanding passenger vehicle market, is poised for a significant change over the next decade, driven by the increasing affluence of young Indians and their willingness to spend, said a top BMW executive. BMW is the second-largest luxury car manufacturer, following Mercedes Benz India. The Bavarian automaker that houses the Mini brand posted record sales between January and September at 9,580 units, up 10% from its previous peak recorded a year ago.
Increased supplies along with sustained demand, buoyed by the launch of new products across segments, led to the highest-ever monthly sales of 1,439 units. Likewise, Mercedes Benz India also achieved its all-time best sales for January-September at 12,768 units, up 11% from a year earlier. Audi India saw an 88% rise in sales during the period, retailing 5,530 units.
Notably, luxury carmakers are witnessing robust upswing in demand, particularly in the premium sport utility vehicle category, amid rapid growth in passenger vehicle sales. “The luxury segment is very small and didn’t grow for many years. There is more growth happening upwards right now (to high-end models), but with our strategy of bringing more customers at the entry-level, we are talking about long-term sustainable growth.
The first task in our strategy is to make sure that we get enough people into the premium segment, and that’s exactly what we’re doing with the X1 SUV. Once people enter the segment, the top-end and the mid-segment also grows because people go further up the price ladder. As that happens, we believe it will be driven primarily by people within the segment migrating to top-end vehicles, than from the outside,"
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