Even as the economy desperately wanders in search of ballasts, for the purpose of cushioning itself against haywire inflation and discouraging growth rate, Germany’s BMW and Mercedes-Benz seem to act indifferent to the perils. The leaders of the luxury market are showing immense confidence in the continuously growing penchant, of the Indian buyers, for luxury cars.
A host of launches coming up in India can be considered as a part of BMW's latest sales initiatives and a capacity boosting plan that would eventually help in doubling its production in India.
Mercedes-Benz is also setting the stage to unwrap its new products and facelifts in 2012, directed towards regaining the trust of its customers and take the success graph to new highs.
Undeterred by ubiquitous slowdown in the passenger car market and counting on its considerable growth of 70% year-to-date, BMW is all-set to reveal a luxury convertible in January. The largest manufacturer and seller of luxury cars in India is also expected to roll-out the Mini range of cars during the initial months of 2012. As a matter of fact, albeit the dimensions displayed by the models measure the same as Maruti’s Swift, mind-bendingly they will be tagged four times higher than the price of a Swift.
BMW India President Andreas Schaff was quoted as saying, “It’s the base segments that are the worst affected (by the slowdown), as buyers of these cars are more price-sensitive than those of luxury cars. Our buyers are extremely wealthy, so less dependent on macro-economic activities. We had put up targets for this year and almost every month, we have outperformed the estimates.”
The company managed to sell-off 8,042 units during the period of January to October, as against 4,741 units in the same time last year. The figures were confirmed by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).
Moreover, seeing the highly favourable outcomes, BMW is certain of including another shift at its assembly plant in Chennai, along with a supplementary assembly line. The strengthening of the assembly process would subsequently hike the production capacity from the existing 10,000 units a year.
Mercedes-Benz, which once led the luxury car segment in India, is planning to come out with two to three new models in 2012. In addition to the facelift of C-Class that is the second-highest selling model in India, the car maker would introduce the R-Class crossover with a diesel engine.
Mercedes rests assured of attaining sales of 7,000 units this year, which is 25% more compared to the last year. As a matter of fact, the sales in January to September period swelled by 23% to 5,634 units.
Mercedes-Benz India Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Peter Honegg stated that “We will achieve our targets this year. We will sell around 7,000 units this year, compared to last year’s sales of 5,600 units. It’s definitely above our internal targets.”
Thus, BMW and Mercedes-Benz look quite certain of not only setting their current position in cement, but also gain the much needed trust of the Indian customers that has been cornered by depressing market trends.
