Luxury cars on a roll in India, clocks best-ever half-yearly sales record

Luxury cars in India are selling more than ever. The segment has seen record sales in the first half of the year with carmakers like Mercedes-Benz, BMW Group and Audi leading the way. Between January and June, the German auto giants have contributed more than 26,000 units across the country. After a promising start to the year, all luxury carmakers are hoping 2023 to turn out to be the best-ever year in terms of sales.

In the last six months, German luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz clocked its best-ever half-yearly sales in the country. It sold 8,528 units with a growth of around 13 per cent. Mercedes-Benz currently remains the leading luxury carmaker in India. Santosh Iyer, Managing Director & CEO at Mercedes-Benz India, said, "Right now, there is a very strong momentum and also a very conscious shift to luxury cars. So the demand continues and we see no reason for that to change as of now," Iyer said.

The BMW Group, one of Mercedes' key rivals in India, also clocked its best half-yearly sales with a record 5,867 units sold during this period. These also include MINI brand of luxury cars which also include electric vehicles. Vikram Pawah, President at BMW Group India, said, "In the second half also we will break records... It will be even better (than H1) with supplies becoming normal. We'll be having a record year if all things remain constant in the economy. The demand seems strong, the product line-up is strong, further enhanced by the launch of the new X5 and response is strong."

Incidentally, despite Mercedes having more number of EV models in its portfolio, it was BMW which emerged as the leader in the segment. BMW sells the iX SUV and the i4 and i7 sedans in the country. Riding high on the success of iX electric SUV, which found the highest number of takers among all luxury EVs in India, the German auto giant now has around 50 per cent of the market share in the segment.

Audi also clocked a near-double jump in sales in India. The German auto giant sold 3,474 units in the first six months this year compared to 1,765 units in previous year. "Our estimate is that in the first six months (of the year) about 21,000 cars have been sold in the luxury space and normally H2 (second half) is better than H1. So, our estimate is that the whole luxury cars segment should be close to about 46,000-47,000 cars this year, which definitely is all-time high," Balbir Singh Dhillon, Head of Audi India, said.

Luxury cars in India have very small penetration compared to other Asian countries. The penetration is around one per cent. The penetration of luxury cars in other Asian countries range between five and eight per cent.