Stressing that the sale of luxury cars, especially top-end vehicles, has increased post-Covid, Santosh Iyer, MD & CEO of Mercedes Benz India, speaking to ET NOW said that Indians are not buying cheap luxury cars and prefer to buy well-equipped and better specification cars.
“In the pre-COVID time, our entry-level cars used to be around odd 30% and then the top end segment used to be around 12%. However post-COVID (last year data ), 22% are coming from the top end and when I say top end vehicles, these are cars more than a crore of rupees, which include S-class, GLS, Maybach, AMG and that is substantial, 22 coming from plus one crore out of a volume of 16,000 cars that we are selling,” he stated.
“And also that segment has grown grown by 69% and that also shows a lot of affinity. So, the good part is Indians are not buying cheap luxury cars, they are buying good cars well equipped, well spec at the top end. What we have also done consciously is in the so-called entry luxury which is in the region of 50 lakhs because even an E-class today costs close to 50 lakhs and a GLA around 55 (on road prices),” he claimed.
“For these cars also, we have specced up. So, we have not gone with a strategy where we come up with entry level versions where it does not have basic features and you reduce the price. We said that if a consumer is upgrading to luxury he should get all the basic features not basic but also all the equipment that is coming in the car and that should help us. I would say it is a price led strategy and it is more equipment brand and of course a good product at the right price points,” he said.
