The Luxury Car Sales in India had a double digit growth (~18%) in 2017! Yes, while the subcontinent had emerged from Demonetization woes, GST implementation lurked it in 2017. Luxury Car Companies were anguished with such frequent policy changes and had disturbed a lot of expansion plans for these OEMs. However, the customers were not deterred and the luxury car makers found more buyers than they could have imagined!
Mercedes Benz again took the Top Slot and had almost 39% market share in the luxury segment! It grew a modest 16% from last year and is expected to cross 15k figures in 2017. Along with the traditional best sellers (E-Class & C-Class), the SUVs (GLC & GLE) were instrumental in the German OEMs growth story.
BMW’s growth in 2017 was exceptional! With no major new launches, it was able to sell 9379 units in India for 2017. It was anyhow supported by the New 5-series which gave a stiff competition to the E-Class. Also Mini did a dismal 421 units vis-a-vis 361 units sold in 2016. The New Clubman was the only fresh launch in the calendar year. BMW+Mini combined was just 200 units short from the 10k mark.
Audi had to recover from the VW Emission Scandalgate and the recovery wasn’t that great! Also this was Audi’s 10th year in the Indian market. Also with no refreshed models in the portfolio, Audi had to take the hit! With New Q5 getting launched in Jan’18 & A6 later in the year – 2018 shall be crucial for the German automaker.
Tata owned JLR had the best performance of all the luxury OEMs. With growth of 49%, JLR had a dream run in 2017. This was primarily possible with the price rationalization on all JLR models as more JLR models would be assembled in the country (v/s earlier CBU ones).