Premium cost attached to luxury cars in the country are are now lesser owing to car-makers commendable initiatives in sourcing parts within India and assembling the cars locally. The move has resulted in prices of luxury cars coming down by 10 - 30 Lakhs. The price cut is pretty evident as locally assembled cars attract duty of only about 30% as against 100% duty that is due on imported ones.
Locally manufacturing and assembling a luxury sedan at a Pune facility, has proved to be highly beneficial for Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) who has managed to get its popular XJ sedan under the one crore price bracket. Rohit Suri, Vice President, JLR India said, “It has helped us increase the market share and we have witnessed an impressive response. The price benefits have clearly helped in improving sales.” Similarly, popular German car-maker's like Mercedes Benz and BMW have been procuring engines from Force Motors based in Pune.
Reportedly, brands like Audi and Volvo have also been working on chalking out similar plans. Amit Kaushik, principal analyst for autos at IHS Automotive (International consultancy), said, “We may see companies such as Fiat-Chrysler bringing the Jeep portfolio through the imported completely built route, but afterwards (may be within a year) they will change that to local assembly.” Eberhard Kern, MD & CEO, Mercedes-Benz India, further added, “We are offering different options to customers for different prices.”
