[blackwasp]

Luxury Ride has compiled luxury car sales for the last decade in a neat table. It shows sales data of Mercedes-Benz, BMW India and Audi India from 2010 onwards.

In 2010, BMW was ahead of the pack with 6,246 units. Mercedes-Benz sold 5,819 units while Audi sold 3,003 units.

BMW continued its dominance for the next 2 years. In 2013, Audi took the top spot with 10,003 units, while Mercedes and BMW sold 9,003 and 7,327 units respectively.

In 2015, Mercedes sold the most number of cars (13,502 units) among the three brands and has since been at the top.



Link to the Team-BHP News

[V.Narayan]

From 15,068 units in 2010 to 27,380 units in 2019 is an 81% growth in 9 years is a growth of over 7% CAGR. Not bad for a luxury product. More than anything else it reflects India's top one percent's growing wealth and willingness to spend and willingness to show. Assuming an average price per unit of a conservative Rs 50 lakhs it means sales worth ~US$1.9 billion. Not significant compared to China but still significant enough. And with Jaguar-Land Rover, Lexus and Volvo added it could mean a ~US$ 2.0 billion market and growing. Before this decade is out this is quite likely to be a US$ 4.5 to 5.0 billion market.

[TrackDay]

The analysis clearly shows that the three pointed star is the most preferred badge in the luxury segment having very good consistency in sales and with 2014 to 2019 having a good time. The frequently discussed topic of a particular brand have an equally meteoric rise and fall is also clear from the numbers. Hope they can recover with newer line ups.

[CarJunki]

Is it only me or just that 2019 sales were lower than 2018. This is even without pandemic. So what else was selling in luxury automobile space? If the lost sales did not go to an alternative product, what caused this loss. 2019 was a good year for the top 1% earners in India.

[ajmat]

Put the data in a graph and added my narration of events

[warrioraks]

Originally Posted by CarJunki

Is it only me or just that 2019 sales were lower than 2018. This is even without pandemic. So what else was selling in luxury automobile space? If the lost sales did not go to an alternative product, what caused this loss. 2019 was a good year for the top 1% earners in India.

2019 was a bad year for automotive industry on a whole. The sector was already staring at layoffs and slowdown even before COVID. The numbers just reflect that.

[Gsynch]

Another way to look into this data would be that: They are back to the same numbers in 2020 where they were in 2010 with Audi helping Mercedes and BMW being wherever they were.

While 2020 had A pandemic impact and it could be an interesting study to find out more about this declining trend which had started in 2019 itself, there could be something between these lines. Except for luxury brands, other carmakers' sales numbers have seen a good jump in the last 4-5 months and hopefully, by the end of March 2021, the number should be back to where they were in 2019.

[dragracer567]

Is it just me or the overall growth in the segment seems underwhelming after 2015. Most of the increases in Mercedes and BMW sales were linked to a proportional decrease in Audi sales. It seems like the growth stagnated after 2015 before going off the cliff after 2019. Offcourse, I might be wrong since JLR, Volvo and Lexus aren’t represented here.

[shobhit.shri]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

From 15,068 units in 2010 to 27,380 units in 2019 is an 81% growth in 9 years is a growth of over 7% CAGR.

If you choose 2012 as the base year, the CAGR comes to 1.18% ( 25218 to 27380 in 7 years). All the growth happened between 2010 to 2012, or probably 2010 was a bad year.

The thing is the Indian market has hardly grown after 2012-13.

[GTO]

Agreed with BHPians. Growth in the luxury car segment is terrible. They always used to talk about there being lots of "headroom" for growth, but:

- The Germans have overpriced their cars. When the heck did a cramped C-Class become a 50 lakh car? Or that BMW 2-Series GranCoupe a 40-lakh car .

- Cars in the segments below have become fabulous. I would buy a Seltos / Compass / Tucson over a damn GLA - or even the X1 - and an Endeavour / Kodiaq over many of the 50 - 60 lakh overpriced SUVs. The base Mercedes GLC costs 70 lakhs .

Remember, the rich became rich by being smart with their money.

- It is interesting to see that, in the same time period, the Fortuner's sales have increased 3 - 4 times over, and the same for the Endeavour too. Clearly, many customers have 40-lakh rupees in their pocket, but they're simply not spending it on the overpriced German luxury brands.

- Audi, BMW & Mercedes have also faced a lot of heat from Volvo, Jaguar-Land Rover etc. Tesla's arrival will be brutal for them.

- Last & most important, SUVs & Crossovers are all the rage now. For 40 lakhs and under, you can buy some truly sexy SUVs from the non-luxury brands. But for 40 - 50 lakhs, you can only buy a BMW X1 (mediocre by current standards), Audi Q2 (what a joke) and the Volvo XC40 (sexy, but not the brand of discussion here).

Is the poor growth any surprise?

[ads11]

That 2013 zenith for Audi makes sense. My family and a few friends and relatives of ours all got into the Audi brand around then only for all of them to now be jaded about the brand.

Originally Posted by ajmat

Attachment 2119062

Put the data in a graph and added my narration of events

Really loved this!

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Not bad for a luxury product. More than anything else it reflects India's top one percent's growing wealth and willingness to spend and willingness to show.

It's anecdotal evidence for sure but I certainly remember coming home for the holidays one year and just suddenly noticing the proliferation of expensive cars and realising that India was affluent and happy to spend it's money now. As a child seeing a Mercedes was a somewhat rare sight in Calcutta, but I distinctly remember sometime in the mid aughts travelling to the outskirts of Calcutta and finding brand spanking new BMWs or Audis in places I wouldn't have hitherto ever expected to see them.

Originally Posted by GTO

Agreed with BHPians. Growth in the luxury car segment is terrible. They always used to talk about there being lots of "headroom" for growth, but:

- The Germans have overpriced their cars. When the heck did a cramped C-Class become a 50 lakh car? Or that BMW 2-Series GranCoupe a 40-lakh car

Remember, the rich became rich by being smart with their money.

I'd like to second this wholeheartedly. I understand inflation over time but honestly how has it gone this far? The Germans anyway realised they could sell at a premium back in the late 2000s, but the extent to which they price their products in India now is taking the mick. Sadly though there seems to be just enough people buying these to get away with it, in the sense the big 3 seem satisfied that they're pricing correctly.

I think the big thing that still goes in their favour is the draw of the brand. For so many it was such an aspirational goal, and many have the means to tick off that bucket list item so to speak. I'd be keen to see what the brand retention is like though. Do folks replace one of their big 3 vehicles with another or do they make the step down to the many compelling options at lower price brackets?

[Theyota]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

From 15,068 units in 2010 to 27,380 units in 2019 is an 81% growth in 9 years is a growth of over 7% CAGR. Not bad for a luxury product. More than anything else it reflects India's top one percent's growing wealth and willingness to spend and willingness to show. Assuming an average price per unit of a conservative Rs 50 lakhs it means sales worth ~US$1.9 billion. Not significant compared to China but still significant enough. And with Jaguar-Land Rover, Lexus and Volvo added it could mean a ~US$ 2.0 billion market and growing. Before this decade is out this is quite likely to be a US$ 4.5 to 5.0 billion market.

I have a completely different view on this. CAGR of 7% growth is nothing for our so called emerging market. We are talking of growth on such a low base for a country with 1.3 billion population. It should be in 15-20% range at least to reflect growing wealth of our people if any. This kind of growth was seen few years back. Also, majority of the Indians are still very conservative when it comes to investing in a depreciating asset such as a car. Due to a non existent social security system and uncertain future, people tend to continue investing in traditional assets.

[CosmicWizard]

Originally Posted by GTO

- The Germans have overpriced their cars. When the heck did a cramped C-Class become a 50 lakh car? Or that BMW 2-Series GranCoupe a 40-lakh car .

Is the poor growth any surprise?

I am not sure how much of overpricing is manufacturer's fault. The other day I was doing math on price of X3 in India vs US. If you take out 30% CKD import tax, 28% GST plus 22% compensation cess (as opposed to 5.75% sales tax in US) and factor in the de-facto discounts, the ex-show price gets very close to the US price. So blame our socialist government! Steady fall in rupee vs dollar is another culprit. Last year I was shocked to learn that Civic has OTR of 23L now in bangalore, as opposed to 16L that I paid in 2010 but then again, in dollar terms, its actually cheaper now.

[CarJunki]

Originally Posted by GTO

Agreed with BHPians. Growth in the luxury car segment is terrible. They always used to talk about there being lots of "headroom" for growth, but:


Remember, the rich became rich by being smart with their money.


- Audi, BMW & Mercedes have also faced a lot of heat from Volvo, Jaguar-Land Rover etc. Tesla's arrival will be brutal for them.


Is the poor growth any surprise?

The poor growth in rich customer segment is the irony of sorts.

The relative value of these German so called luxury cars has been declining. As rich became rich by being smart about money, it is not so easy to fool them. The ones who are more gullible are in different customer segment.

The corporate talk about "headroom" is always about price growth seldom about delivering proportional value.

[dragracer567]

Originally Posted by GTO

Agreed with BHPians. Growth in the luxury car segment is terrible. They always used to talk about there being lots of "headroom" for growth, but:

- The Germans have overpriced their cars. When the heck did a cramped C-Class become a 50 lakh car? Or that BMW 2-Series GranCoupe a 40-lakh car .

- Cars in the segments below have become fabulous. I would buy a Seltos / Compass / Tucson over a damn GLA - or even the X1 - and an Endeavour / Kodiaq over many of the 50 - 60 lakh overpriced SUVs. The base Mercedes GLC costs 70 lakhs .

Is the poor growth any surprise?

The German car companies aren’t exactly angels and are certainly guilty of overpricing cars. However to be fair to them, given that these cars are imported, atleast in parts, they are extremely susceptible to fluctuations in the exchange rates. The Indian rupee has lost about 60% of its value against the dollar, about 30% of its value against the euro and about 40% of its value against the yen in the last 10 years. All this drop in value means a proportional increase in prices of imported goods like luxury cars and premium smartphones and a proportional drop in the purchasing power of Indian residents. It’s just market forces at work.