[SILVERWOOD]

Luxury car sales grow fastest in 5 years in India

Luxury car sales in India grew at its fastest clip since 2012 with a near 17 percent jump in sales in 2017 as German carmaker Mercedes Benz retained its crown at the top of the pile for the third straight year.

Mercedes registered sales of 15,300 units during the year, a growth of 16 percent over 2016 and was the only company to report five-digit sales for the year. Arch rival BMW reported a 24.6 percent growth at 9,800 units while Audi's tally was almost stagnant at 7,876 units.

"Clocking more than 15,000 sales units is one of the many first-of-its kind achievements for Mercedes-Benz in the luxury car segment in India, and we are glad to achieve them and spearhead the industry, firmly," said Roland Folger, managing director and CEO, Mercedes Benz India.

Though the numbers suggest otherwise, the year was not a smooth sailing for the industry. While the first three months of the year were marred by the aftermath of the demonetization exercise of November 2016, the roll out of the GST in the middle of the year was a sweet-sour event for the sector. While initially, prices came down when GST on luxury cars were restricted to 43 percent in July, the imposition of cess two months later put paid to hopes of a bumper year.

"In principle, there is no doubt GST is a great step. It brings in uniform taxation that is simpler and makes doing business in the country easier," says Rahil Ansari, head, Audi India. "The frequent changes in taxes however did confuse the buyers. We initially passed on the entire benefit only to undo it a couple of months later. So initially we saw a lot of traction but it became a little more difficult later on."

With a slew of launches, 2018 promises to be an even better year. Audi will bring in a facelift of one of its largest selling SUVs--the Q5, later this month while Jaguar Land Rover will also launch its new SUV--Velar. At the super luxury end, Lamborghini will also drive in its own SUV, the Urus.

https://in.yahoo.com/news/luxury-car...080712229.html

[rohan.xj]

The new A4 (only talking about the diesel variants) is easily the best all rounder amongst the competition. C class has a weird rear bench and lacks any form of driving exhilaration. 3 series has the best-in-class ride and acceleration but the interiors are seriously dated. A4 offers the right combo of driving pleasure and best in class interiors / space with some serious bells and whistles in terms of gadgets / features.

2016 clearly seems to be the worst year for Audi as they lost maximum volume in a falling market! Am guessing the new Merc C class and 3 series would have been tough to match by the older A4 and the CLAs and X1s of the world would have found additional traction. Aggressive pricing by competition would have further aggravated Audi's case!

2018 should be a pivotal year for all luxury car makers, Corporate India is poised for an earnings growth of suffering through demonetisation, GST, random NGT bans and mountains of bad debt!

[aithalsandy]

Surprising to see Kannada Press covering Mercedes growth numbers. This article appeared in Kannada Prabha (Indian Express Kannada publication, but active participation by MP, Rajeev Chandrashekhar)

Approximate translation by the expert (me)

Sales grew by 9.9% YoY to 15,330 in 2017. Long wheelbase is driving demand for E-class, while sedan, SUV, AMG grew in double digits.

According to the CEO, the company will introduce Maybach at autoexpo 2018.The latest growth is the highest growth for 3m, 6m and 1yr - increasing the grip on luxury segment in India.

Also, any indicative numbers from other players such as Lamborghini, Ferrari, Jeep?

[volkman10]

Luxury segment - the Growth story so far, a market that automakers cannot afford to ignore!

To highlight the significance of Indian Luxury Automotive segment – India is one of the first few markets in the world where the Lamborghini Urus is being launched. Even with a ticket price of Rs.3 crores (Ex-showroom, Delhi), company claims that they have exhausted almost all the Lamborghini Urus SUVs allotted for India, for the year 2018!

Past 10 year analysis:

- Mercedes Benz take the Top slot with the sales of 88,260 units. BMW stands second with sales of 70,209 units. Audi within a smaller span came close to BMW and sold 67,887 units.

- BMW and Audi have completed just half the tenure of Mercedes

-BMW’s rise was phenomenal – It was able to dethrone Mercedes as the No.1 luxury OEM, just within 3 years of its presence in India

- Audi’s rise has been similar – Though it was founded in 2007, it jumped as the No.1 Luxury Car maker by 2013 and toppled both BMW & Mercedes.

- Mercedes get back to Number One in 2017 with a spur of new launches in 2015

- Mercedes Benz commanded a market share of over 39% and is going strong year on year. It also achieved its all time highest sales volume of 15,300 units in 2017!

- Luxury car penetration is mere 1%.







Link

[giri1.8]

Originally Posted by volkman10

- Luxury car penetration is mere 1%.

I would without a doubt blame our infrastructure for this poor figure, so many people who could afford multiple luxury car settled for either Fortuner or Innova, another aspect is attracting wrong kind of attention!

[quickdraw]

Some observations from my perspective.

• Luxury car sales just grew by 8000 units a year in the last 5 years.
• Mini's number of 420 cars likely to take a hit since GST increase has pushed a decently specced Mini into 50 lakh on road. Maybe local assembly of Cooper S this time around instead of the Countryman which never really took off? Boy racers would be all over a CKD Mini.
• BMW Motorrad sales likely thanks to its introductory pre GST pricing, I would be surprised to see them keep up this momentum in 2018 considering most of their range costs north of 20 lakh. But it's great they are here.
• Luxury car sales in India are still very much in their infancy. With astronomical taxes, volatility in taxation and the stunted growth of middle class I wonder if it will really ever take off?

[stanjohn123]

2 Main thing's will further keep Luxury car sales very minimal in India.

High Taxation and sudden inflated price of luxury(German trio) car's.

To get a brand new decent luxury car, on-road price comes to around 40-60 Lakh's.

In India you can do a lot of thing's with 50-60 Lakh's. Majority Indian's mentality would be to construct few flat's and get income out of it rather than spending it on a depreciating asset.

[avishar]

As a measure of comparison, the sales figures of the German 3 in other markets in 2017.

Germany (Total sales 3.4 million;similar to India)

Mercedes : 326,188
Audi : 283,196
BMW : 261,864

China (Total sales 28 million)

Audi : 597,866
BMW : 594,388
Mercedes : 587,868

USA (Total sales 17.7 million)

Audi : 226,511
BMW : 352,790
Mercedes Benz : 337,246

[GTO]

This just in from Mercedes:

- Quarterly sales of 4556 units in Q1 2018, a growth of 24.8%

- Fiscal at 16,236 units for FY 2017-18, a growth of 22.5%

- A strong volume push from the sedan segment with the success of Long wheelbase E-Class

- The SUV segment also contributed strongly to the volumes with a double digit growth and lead by the sales of GLC

[Sahil]

The E-class LWB was expected to be a sure winner but the GLC is a bit of a surprise to me.

Although the GLC initially wasn't seen much, I am beginning to see a lot more on the road past few months. I think this might be due to the Q1 2018 discounting support that MBIL gave on the GLC to clear 2017 stocks.
However, there aren't any major discounts in Q2 2018 as the stock of 2017 GLC is over, I bought the last one last week Hence, it would be interesting to see if people are willing to pay OTR 60+ lakhs for a C-class SUV when you can get a C-class sedan for 15 lakhs less.

[Arjun Reddy]

Originally Posted by Sahil

However, there aren't any major discounts in Q2 2018 as the stock of 2017 GLC is over, I bought the last one last week Hence, it would be interesting to see if people are willing to pay OTR 60+ lakhs for a C-class SUV when you can get a C-class sedan for 15 lakhs less.

It is the only SUV in the Mercedes range that has the new interior like the C,E& S class. Being an SUV in India is have the job done and the all new interiors may just be enticing enough to sell the GLC.

[aithalsandy]

Some more numbers for the fiscal year. I think BMW has better numbers than the estimate.

[volkman10]

Surprising sales data for April 2018. BMW beats Mercedes Benz to become the largest selling luxury auto maker.

BMW has managed to pip Mercedes-Benz at the top of the luxury vehicle sales charts and garnered 955 unit sales – at an increase of 145 units over Mercedes-Benz in April 2018

Link

[volkman10]

Mercedes-Benz reaches a big milestone in India . Rolls out 100,000th locally made car

[GTO]

This just in from BMW:

BMW Group India delivered 5171 cars (BMW + MINI) from January to June 2018, registering a growth of 13% as compared to 2017.

BMW India sold 4890 cars, clocking a notable growth of 12% as compared to 2017. MINI continues to lead the small-premium car segment in India with 281 cars sold, clocking a remarkable growth of 30% as compared to 2017.

BMW Motorrad has already sold 208 motorcycles within the first half of the year.