India - A Rapidly Growing Market for Luxury Cars

　
All of a sudden, India seems to be the marketing target of a whole lot of overseas automobile giants for their luxury cars.

It has been reported that the Indian luxury car market is growing at a rate of about 40% pa. Famed brands like Rolls Royce, Porsche, BMW, Bentley and Mercedes have already established a substantial presence in the Indian market..

According to Volvo, the Indian market for cars periced over INR 20,00,000/- is exspected to grow 100% - from the 11,000 luxury cars sold here last year to 22,000. The growth seems spectacular and significant until we are told that 43,990 Mercedes Benz cars were sold in China during the first three months of this year (2011).

                                                                                 
The British luxury sports carmaker Aston Martin opened its first dealership in Mumbai on Friday, 15th April 2011 and another is to be launched in Delhi by mid-year. The new dealership in Mumbai is in partnership with Performance Cars (a division of Infinity Cars Pvt. Ltd.) which has been in the Indian luxury car market for a while now. Infinity Cars is the dealer for BMW cars also in Mumbai and Madhya Pradesh and also the India distributor for Princess Yachts (part of the LVMH group).

Aston Martin’s Chief Commercial Officer, Michael van der Sande said, ‘India represents a new opportunity for us and as part of our programme of growing the reach of the global Aston Martin dealership network this expansion brings our brand to a different audience in a new market.'

‘Our decision to bring the Aston Martin brand to India is driven by a strong level of interest and enthusiasm from potential customers in an emerging luxury market. We have taken our time to find the right advocates for Aston Martin and I am confident that we have selected strong partners with whom we look forward to starting a successful relationship.'

 

Bentley, with an established presence in India, unveiled last week its Continental GT—a coupe which is driven by a 12-cylinder engine and can reach a top speed of 318 km per hour and is one of the best-selling models of Bentley; the Continental GT costs Rs.1.9 Cores ex-showroom. New Delhi. Bentleys are currently sold through through two dealerships in the country, one in New Delhi and another in Mumbai.

Bentley expects to sell about 45 units in India this year. Globally, it is targeting to sell 7,000 units in 2011. Bentley's Buxton estimates the Indian super luxury car market to be around 600-700 units this year and expects annual growth to be around 30%. "Bentley's sales in India are growing at around 45 per cent every year," he added.

Ferrari of Italy, which has been conspicuous by its absence in the market, announced in March 2011 that they would be entering the Indian market during the year. Ferrari has signed an agreement with the Shreyans Group in the matter. The first Ferrari showroom here will be in New Delhi and a second one will open in Mumbai later this year. Ferrari will sell four of its models here including the Ferrari California, 458 Italia, 599GTB Fiorano and the latest FF displayed at the Geneva Motor Show last week.

The Italian Car manufacturer Maserati announced last week that they would start selling their cars In India by end-2011. The Italian luxury car maker, a part of the Fiat Group, has appointed the Shreyans Group as the exclusive dealer for Maserati cars. The first showroom will come up in Mumbai this year followed by Delhi next year. Plans are afoot for seven such dealerships by 2015.

Officials said sales (in number of cars) were expected to reach the three-digit mark over the next three years. "We will start this year with one dealership in Mumbai and the second one will open in New Delhi in 2012," said Simone Niccolai, MD for Asia-Pacific.

It won't be out of place to recollect that our own Tata Motors bought the Jaguar and Landrover brands from Ford motors in 2008. The Landrover Freelander 2 is expected to be ready to enter the Indian market this year. the impact of the entrhy of other high profile car makers across the seas is expected to pose challenges to these brands of Tata Motors.

Much as the estimates of these overseas brands regarding the potential of the Indian market for luxury cars are varied, they are all unifromly optimistic and upbeat. Much remains to be seen how far these rosy expectations prove correct, however.