Indian car market luxury accelerates despite the slowdown

Indian car market luxury accelerates despite the slowdown

autoboss v30 German giant Mercedes admits he was "a little surprised" when the Indian customers snapped up 125 of its new luxury cars of the premium cost S $ 250,000 in just 16 days each class.

The automotive industry of India skidded on a patch of ice and is set for a second consecutive year of decline, but a segment is further accelerate luxury cars.

Analysts first automobile show in India in the suburbs of the capital of Greater Noida last week, said the periods of "rich" economic downturn have a "significant impact" on their luxury spending.

The rich are much less sensitive to higher interest rates and are more resistant to global slowdowns, analysts say.

"The luxury car sales are still growing at 15 per cent-plus every year. For the next three years, the segment's growth to continue at 15 per cent up," noted a report from the Confederation of Indian Industry and IMRB international market research firm.

Sales increased in overdrive for parts of luxury car segment. Daimler AG Mercedes Benz, for example, saw sales rocket by 32 per cent every year in India, despite tariffs on imports punitive.

However, "while we firmly believe in our product, we were a bit surprised when we sold 125 cars in the S-Class in 16 days - and it was the customers who bought blind", Mercedes -Benz India CEO Eberhard Kern said.

Cars purchased are publishing Indian launch of the latest S-Class luxury sedan Mercedes, priced at 15.7 million rupees ($ 250,000).

In contrast, sales of passenger cars are set to fall by nearly 10 percent this year to March 2014, provides for the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), after years of growth of about 30 cent.

The market was hit by higher borrowing costs and elusive consumer confidence amid the economic growth of only 4.5 percent - half the rate seen during the boom times of India.

Big spenders

But while India staggers from its worst recession in a decade, the previous years of rapid growth have created a new propertied class who buy premium brands and keep the segment out of the water.

" sbb key programmer Economic downturns have a negligible impact on consumers of luxury ... and the overall level of income increased," Shrawan Raja of Indian Autos Blog, a portal for Indian car, told AFP.

Although figures from the World Bank show 33 per cent of India's poorest call home in the world, the country has also hit 65 dollar billionaires, according to Forbes magazine, and hundreds of thousands of dollar millionaires.

Ten years ago, the luxury car isolated commonly spotted wonderfully congested, potholed roads of India Mercedes was the first premium manufacturer to open a shop in 1995. But now, Audi, Jaguar, Bentley, Aston Martin, Porches and other top badges regularly weave in traffic.

Big spenders are the executives, former farmers who have sold property for huge sums to developers, and a younger generation rich with different values ​​of their thrifty parents who escape the "conspicuous consumption", analysts say.

"There has been a change of attitude to spending money - making it a more welcoming place for luxury automakers," Anil Sharma, senior research analyst at consultancy IHS Automotive, told AFP .

V-checker V301 The market for luxury cars in India is still tiny - the total sold by the major players in the luxury in India, Mercedes, Audi, BMW and Jaguar Landrover was 30100. But that number is expected to increase 168 percent in 2018, according to the IHS board.