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Is India A Luxury Car Hub?
India's association with luxury cars goes back to the era of Maharajahs who owned custom built Rolls-Royces, Cadillacs and Buicks among other cars. Only a handful of people in India had access to luxury cars during the post independence era. Few individuals were importing luxury cars but they rarely came in public view. The recent increase in very rich individuals and the raising awareness about cars has lead to a clear increase in luxury car sales in India.
The arrival of several luxury car brands in India is also a sign that India has arrived at the Luxury car scene. While Mercedes-Benz had a sort of monopoly in the luxury car sector in the 90s, it could not drive home its advantage after it faced competition from BMW and Audi. BMW managed to overthrow Mercedes-Benz to become India's leading luxury car maker. Audi is currently placed third.
This all German team of top selling luxury carmakers will be facing a new set of competitors. The Tata Motors Owned Jaguar Land Rover can be considered as one of the most significant among them. The UK based luxury carmaker has already starting assembling its models in India. It considers India to be its second home market and plans to dominate the scene. French carmaker Renault which recently launched the Fluence sedan claims all its models will be premium vehicles and would not compete with volume carmakers.
While the above discussed carmakers are looking at volume sales, there are a separate set of carmakers who want to market themselves as niche brands catering to the tastes of the elite. Aston Martin, the British sports car manufacturer is selling all its models except the Cygnet. The most expensive model is the Rs.20 crore One-77. The other high profile carmaker to enter the Indian car market is Ferrari. The Italian sports carmaker is looking to sell about 300 cars in India in the next three years.
Other premium carmakers such as Bentley, Rolls-Royce and Porsche have already set up shop in India and are expecting sales to increase. BMW sales has increased to 6,281 units this year as against the 3,461 units it sold the previous year. Audi is also expecting to sell around 4,500 units this year marking a 50 per cent increase from 2010. Porsche has projected sales of 500 cars this year, compared to the 130 cars it sold last year. British luxury carmaker Bentley's sales are expected to be about 100 units despite the starting price of a Bentley being Rs.1.9 crores. At this juncture the list of luxury carmakers wanting to enter the Indian car market has increased after Japanese carmakers Toyota and Nissan announced plans to launch their luxury car brands Lexus and Infiniti in India.
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