Audi India in June opened up a slender lead on BMW, its German rival that has ruled the Indian luxury car space for the past three years.
Audi sold 759 cars in June, compared with BMW’s 750, in a market that is clearly showing signs of a slowdown, the Economic Times of India reported.
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“It’s the Audi effect, where customers are pulled by the strong brand that is reinforced by the largest line-up of luxury products offered in India. We did not target to be market leaders in 2012 but would like to build the momentum with new product offerings and stronger dealership network to sustain this newly-acclaimed feat in the long term,” Audi India head Michael Perschke said. “It’s a pleasant surprise. We were targeting leadership only next year,” he added.
Sales at BMW India declined 12% to 2,088 cars in the first fiscal quarter compared with2,377 cars in the same period last year.
Audi sales in the first three months jumped 52% to 1,908 units from 1,254 units. A mere 180 cars now separate the two companies in the first three months of this financial year. Daimler, which set up operations in India in 1996, saw Mercedes-Benz sales down by a quarter to a mere 1,257 cars in Q1.
“We are still the market leader in terms of overall sales. What we share in terms of our domestic sales is our retail numbers while the competition could be out with their wholesale numbers that are actually delivered to the dealerships and could be higher than actual retail,” a BMW India spokesperson told ETI.
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By GlobalData“It’s a fierce market as all brands are extremely competitive. But the new entrants have the advantage of novelty brand value that is advantageous to Audi, which is also aggressive in tapping the younger lot of customers to its advantage. The market is changing very fast; all the players in the luxury market will have to be sustainable to maintain their unique proposition in the long term,” said Abdul Majeed, who tracks the auto segment at PwC India.
