The Hindu Business Line : Super luxury car makers surpass sales targets

Luxury launch: Mr Stay Bagla, Managing Director, Exclusive Motors Pvt Ltd (right), and Mr Chris Buxton, Regional Director, Bentley Motors (Middle-East, Africa and India), at the launch of Bentley’s ‘Continental Flying Spur’ in the Capital on Friday. —

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Oct. 10 A burgeoning number of high net worth individuals are driving the super luxury car market in India with world’s top brands such as Bentley and Rolls Royce surpassing their annual sales targets ahead of time.

Typically, super luxury cars cost Rs 1.5 crore onwards. This year Bentley achieved its annual target of selling 25 cars in just eight months. Similar has been the situation with Rolls Royce.

“The Indian market is allotted a quota of 25 cars a year. By August our order book had filled up. And we are requesting Bentley UK to allot some more models for the domestic market,” said Mr Amit Aggarwal, Corporate Sales Manager of Bentley in New Delhi. He was speaking at the sidelines of the launch of Continental Flying Spur that claims to be the world’s fastest car. The Flying Spur is a four door luxury saloon which can run 322 km/hour and will be sold at an approximate price of Rs 2.5 crore.

He explained that since the cars are hand-crafted and not assembled by machines, it takes around six months to deliver to a customer after the order is placed. The process also constrains the company from producing more models.

Rolls Royce dealership in Mumbai also said a robust demand in the first six months boosted sales of its models.

“In the first half of the year, we crossed our target of eight-ten units. Even though the market sentiments seem to be slowing down the sales of super luxury cars, we would still exceed our figures. For the entire calendar year, the company could sell 20 units,” said Mr Sharad Kachalia, Director, Navneet Motors.

According to Mr Satya Prakash Bagla, Managing Director, Bentley India, there are 50,000 individuals in the country earning income higher than $1 million. “The market is huge for such cars,” he commented. Last year, a Merrill Lynch report estimated the number of high networth individuals in the country growing by 20 per cent annually.

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