While the Indian automobile industry is facing a sharp slowdown in sales growth as compared to growth registered in last few years, the luxury car segment seems to remain unaffected by the slowdown. For instance, the luxury car segment in the city of Kolkata has been registering continuous rising since last few months, showing no impact of slumping sales in the mass segment of cars. In Kolkata, the total sales of leading luxury car makers in India including BMW, Mercedes, Audi and Jaguar & Land Rover stood at 793 cars in the period of January to October 2011, as compared to 419 cars sold in the same period last year.
The mass segment of cars has been registering sharp falls in growth rates since the month of June 2011. The leading car maker including Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Tata and Mahindra & Mahindra have lowered their growth projections, as rising fuel prices and high interest rates on car loans are keeping the buyers out of the showrooms.
However, this is not the case with the luxury car segment buyers as they are seemingly unaffected by the negative sentiments of the market. In the first 10 months of this year (January to October 2011), the sales of leading luxury car makers in Kolkata remained as follows – BMW at 310 cars, Mercedes Benz at 188, Audi at 237 and Jaguar Land Rover at 54 cars.
While commenting on the current market scenario, Sandeep Kumar Bajaj, MD of Audi Kolkata, said, "At Audi, we've had a fabulous festive season. We are on our way in touching 250 cars, a quantum leap from 121 cars we sold last year," he said.
