Premium car makers facing the heat

Just when premium segment car-makers thought they were insulated from the slump in the automobile market, unlike mass market car-makers, data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) seem to shake them out of their comfort-zone.
In October, sales of high-end cars (priced between Rs 8.02 lakh and Rs 1.24 crore) fell by 30.51 per cent to 2,859 units compared to 4,114 units in the corresponding month of last year. The hardest hit was the luxury segment (price ranging between Rs 73.6 lakh and Rs 1.24 crore), which was considered to be the most insulated from the current credit crisis, declining by 61.19 per cent to 26 units from 67 units in the same month last year. In this category, German carmaker Mercedes-Benz’s sales (the S-class model) in Indian market plunged by over six fold in October to only seven units from 44 units in the year-ago period, SIAM said, adding BMW India’s sales (7-Series cars) in the segment also declined by 17.39 per cent at 19 units compared to 23 units in the same month last year.

SIAM pointed out that sales of executive segment cars in October also plummeted by 34.29 per cent to 2,313 units from 3,520 units in the corresponding month of 2007. Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM), however, registered an impressive growth of over two fold in the executive segment riding on the novelty factor of its new offering ‘Corolla Altis’ with 1,110 units selling in October compared to 526 units in the year-ago period.
Mercedes-Benz and BMW, which offer ‘C-class’ and ‘3-series’ cars respectively in the segment, also managed to push their sales in the positive direction. While the ‘Corolla Altis’ priced between Rs 10.83 lakh and Rs 12.86 lakh, the ‘C-class’ and ‘3-series’ are offered at range of Rs 26-30 lakh and Rs 27-33 lakh respectively.
The premium segment also declined by 1.33 per cent at 520 units during the last month as against 527 units in the corresponding month last year, SIAM said. In the category, the sales of TKM (Camry) and Mercedes-Benz (E-class) plummeted by nearly four fold in October, while that of HMIL (Sonata) fell by nearly three fold. However, BMW, HSCI and SkodaAuto India registered jumps in their sales in the premium category, SIAM said.  The October sales slip is quite contrary to confidence exuded by players in the high-end categoy. BMW had revised upwards its India sales target for this calendar in July by 40 per cent to 2,800 units from an initial 2000 units. Mercedes-Benz had also said they were expecting to sell about 3,000 units and a company official said in the Jan-Oct period it has already sold 3,141 units.

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