Sales of luxury cars, bikes zoom

This segment of the automobile market does not see ups and downs, is immune to spiraling fuel costs and a slowdown in economic growth fails to impact it in any significant way.

The luxury car market is doing well in India, notwithstanding the stock market meltdown, the emerging signals of an industrial slowdown and rising input costs. Business Standard spoke to several companies that make high-end cars and dealers who import and sell these cars in the country and they all said in one voice that sales were booming.

"We have witnessed a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 55 per cent over the last few years in the sales of super luxury cars that we sell in the country," said Ashish Chordia, CEO of Shreyans, which imports Porsche & Audi cars in the country.

To put it in context, sales of cars in all popular categories have been able to manage a CAGR of 12 per cent for the past three years.

Delhi-based Exclusive Motors, which that imports super luxury cars like the Lamborghini (Gallardo & Murcielago series) and Bentley (Arnage & Continental series) priced Rs 1.5 crore and above, has witnessed an annual growth of 15-20 per cent over the last two financial years.

"We sell to a select clientele comprising mainly the global Indian who has a good understanding of the super luxury cars he is investing in," said Satya Bagla, MD, Exclusive Motors.

Sales of Mercedes Benz in the first four months of this year are already more than half of last year's. It has sold 1,330 units in the period of January-April 2008. Its average monthly sale stood at 208 units last year; it has shot up to 333 this year.

BMW's Indian operations witnessed a 25 per cent growth in sales of its cars & SUVs. The German car major sold 804 units in 2007-8, up from 644 in 2006-07. It has already sold 1,079 units in the first four months of this year, whereas it sold 1,387 units in 2007.

More than half of the sales came from the 5 Series, priced at Rs 37-42 lakh. The company is confident of grabbing a significant pie of the 10,000 units a year market by 2010, which currently stands at 5,000 units.

Sales of luxury cars, ana-lysts said, have grown as there is a new generation of entrepreneurs impatient to own marquee brands that connotes status and success. And most of them are young.

Suhas Kadlaskar, director (corporate affairs), Mercedes Benz, India, said that the average age of a Mercedes Benz owner, which used to 45 years earlier, has now come down to 35 years.

"Apart from industrialists, film stars & chairmen of companies, an increasing number of young professionals like doctors, CAs, lawyers and software professionals owning startups don't mind splurging on our cars," he added.

Interestingly, about 15 per cent of the total sales of Mercedes Benz in 2007 came from tier II cities like Kolhapur, Madurai, Nashik, Jaipur and Chandigarh. Moreover, the company sold 100 S Class cars