BMW leads the race of luxury car sales in India and that’s why it sounds surprising that Tata Motors owned brand Land Rover has taken the lead over the German brand in the SUV segment. Tata Motors sold 35 units of Land Rovers sold in January as compared to 16 units of SUV’s sold by BMW in the same month. While Audi was happy with a total sale of 114 units of SUV’s in January, Mercedes was in a sorry state with only 6 units sold.
With a starting price of Rs 35 lakh, Land Rover offers an entire array of SUV models in India including the Freelander 2, Discovery 4 Sports Tourer, the Range Rover Sport and the Range Rover. Land Rover is thrilled with the response of the Indian customers and now plans to expand its Range Rover product portfolio in India.
In comparison, BMW has been reserved about its offerings in India and has launched only a select few models from its SUV segment, including X3, X5 and X6 that start at Rs 55 lakh.
In a sensitive market like India, where people look for value for their money, the cheaper pricing strategy has pushed Land Rover to lead the SUV segment in India.
BMW intends to fight fair and square and will soon start assembling its X1 model at its Chennai plant, bringing down the cost to Rs 26 lakh. “The 3 series, 5 series and X1 will be the volume puller for the company,” said a senior BMW executive.
The luxury car market in India is expected to grow at a 15% rate with most of the demand coming from the rural and semi-urban community. And with the market scenario changing towards more fuel-efficient SUV models, car manufacturers have to be ready with their smaller SUV models that can score high on luxury features in their models.
Currently Audi Q5 and Audi Q7 are imported in India as completely built units which make them pricier for the Indian customers. So, in a bid to price the cars more competitively, Audi will start manufacturing its model Q5 in India from April 2010.
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