Luxury car makers struggle to sell in India, despite many launches

BMW has launched the Mini Cooper Clubman priced at Rs 37.9 lakh

The luxury car market in India has not moved much in the last three years despite numerous launches and sales promotion initiatives, according to head of operations of BMW India.

The domestic luxury car market has stagnated at around 35,000 units a year with players eating into each other's share. German car makers Mercedes-Benz and Audi showed growth last year at the expense of BMW, which had a tough 2015.

"The Indian market is at 35,000 units and did not grow during the last three years. The only difference is difference in market share but there was no growth and that is what worries me. There is no point in fighting for market share in a market that is so small. The task all of us have is to make the cake bigger", said Frank Schroeder, acting president, BMW India.

Schroeder was in Mumbai to launch the Mini Cooper Clubman priced at Rs 37.9 lakh. This is the fifth Mini branded model launched in India.

While Schroeder said that before the demonetisation move by the government BMW sales were had grown by 20 per cent, post November sales were impacted. He however declined to provide sales figures for India for the current year.

First it was ban on sales of diesel cars in the Delhi-NCR area which heavily impacted sales of luxury car. While the ban has since been lifted it has created a sense of uncertainty amongst current and potential buyers of diesel car. This was followed by demonetisation in November which again impacted retail demand.

Mercedes-Benz said it had clocked sales of 9924 units in the January-September period while Audi and BMW did not provide such details.

Further, Schroeder also mentioned that the X1 (compact SUV) had to be withdrawn temporarily since the company was 'not making any money' on it. The X1 makes up 30 per cent of BMW's India volumes. BMW recently re-introduced the model.

The company launched 14 new products this calendar year, including the Mini launched on Thursday.