The Hindu Business Line : Marquees make a bold statement

Mumbai/New Delhi, Dec. 6 The growing number of luxury cars on the Indian roads seems to match the figures in the latest Merrill Lynch report which show high net worth individuals in India surging at 20.5 per cent annually.

Be it Rolls Royce, BMW or Bentley, all have surpassed their targets in the Indian market.

The super luxury car maker Rolls Royce, that sold seven cars last year, has clocked 19 orders in the current year.

Rolls Royce ‘Phantom’.

“When we started in 2005, we closed with five orders. The next year it grew to seven. This year we have got 19 bookings. By the year-end we will have delivered 14 Rolls-Royce. We are satisfied with more than 100 per cent growth in sales,” Mr Sharad Kachalia, Director Marketing, Navnit Motors, told Business Line.

Similarly, Bentley, which sells cars in the same range, said that going by the sheer inquiries received, had it not been for production capacity constraint it could easily sell 60 cars in India, up from its annual target of 30.

BMW has also exceeded its target of luxury cars for the fiscal 2006-07 within the 2007 calendar year itself.

“We had set a target to sell 1,000 cars in India for the financial year 2007-08. But we have already sold 1,100 in mainly the 3 and 5 series. We expect to sell over 1,350 cars by March,” said Mr Peter Kronschnabl, President, BMW India.

Mr Kronschnabl estimated that the luxury car market in the country, which was at about 3,300 units last year, would touch around 4,000 units this year. By 2010, he expected it to cross the 10,000-units mark.