Market leader Mercedes-Benz performed poorly, reporting a growth of 1.3 percent to 15,538 units in 2018 as against 15,330 units sold in 2017.
Luxury car sales grew by nine percent in 2018, despite a week broader demand trend as manufacturers gear up for their new launches with a hope of no further penalty on their segment of vehicles this year.
Four manufacturers – Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo – clocked sales of 33,877 units during last year as compared to 31,113 units sold in 2017. Audi, the Volkswagen group brand, had not issued its numbers at the time of publishing the article.
The growth has come despite a five percent increase in customs duty, price increase by the luxury car companies, tightened credit supplies, increased availability of used luxury cars and poorly performing stock market. The luxury car segment is already the highest taxed segment of the Indian auto industry.
Market leader Mercedes-Benz performed poorly, reporting a growth of 1.3 percent to 15,538 units in 2018 as against 15,330 units sold in 2017. This is the slowest growth in two years for the German heavyweight.
In a statement, Martin Schwenk, Managing Director & CEO, Mercedes-Benz India, said: "We are satisfied with our sales performance in 2018 despite facing strong macro-economic headwinds in H2, resulting in low consumer sentiment that posed significant sales challenges."
BMW finished 2018 with sales of 11,105 units (including 700 units of sold under the Mini brand), a growth of 13 percent over 9,800 units clocked in 2017. The Mini brand clocked a growth of 66 percent last year.
Tata Motors-owned Brit brands Jaguar Land Rover said it posted a growth of 16 percent in sales to 4,596 units in 2018 as compared to 3,954 units sold in 2017. Unlike its peers the two luxury brands do not have any compact models in its line-up.
Rohit Suri, President & Managing Director, Jaguar Land Rover India said: "The auto industry faced strong headwinds in 2018, especially in the second half with tight liquidity conditions, increased upfront insurance costs and increased lending rates. Despite that, the growth of Jaguar Land Rover in India has been very encouraging for us and we continue to focus on strong product launches."
Volvo, the Swedish luxury car brand posted the best growth clocking 30 percent more sales at 2,638 units during 2018 as compared to 2,029 units sold in 2017.
Audi is the only luxury car brand that has shown signs of a struggle in each of the last three years. Its numbers fell from a all-time high of 11,192 units clocked during 2015 to 7,876 units sold in 2017. In the first half of last year (Jan-June) Audi posted 11 percent decline in volumes to 3423 units as against 3831 units clocked in the same period in 2016.
Audi’s fall in sales were a surprise as its rivals such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Jaguar Land Rover and Volvo reported double-digit rise in sales during the same period.
Audi has a limited model line-up in India compared to its peers perhaps being the main reason behind its under-performance. The company has just nine models in its portfolio at present. Mercedes-Benz, the market leader in the luxury car segment, has 19 models while BMW has 15 models.
