Indians who have lived overseas particularly in West Asia or Canada is the target customer base which Lexus is eyeing here, as it announced its entry into the country on Friday.

“India is a combination of state and city. For instance, people from Kerala who have lived in Dubai and those from Punjab who have lived in Canada know about Lexus and they have driven them in Dubai, Toronto, New York and London,” Vince Socco, Executive Vice President, Lexus Asia Pacific, told BusinessLine.

There were earlier reports that the company was entering India in 2010, but because of some regulations change, including the customs duty hike to more than 100 per cent in completely built units (CBUs) led the company to step back.

While Lexus stepped back, many companies flourished in the Indian luxury car market, including Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar Land Rover.

Many of the customers of Toyota Camry and Fortuner had also moved to buy these brands as their up-grader or for owning as luxury car.

“They (customers) had to look to others (brands) because Toyota didn’t have a luxury brand. This made us think about the luxury brand and make sure our Toyota high-end customers who want to stay with us get a choice,” explained Socco.

When asked why a late entry, he said that the company had to hold the project in 2010 as it had to restudy and rethink of different project models at that point in time. “It meant to make our dealers profitable and us profitable because if we are not profitable then we cannot sustain,” he added. On asked about the after-sales service, Socco added, “We will make sure that when the services are done, the proforma invoice with the service cost is much competitive. It won’t be much different with Toyota (service), which will make customers happy.”

Having said that the company will also make sure to convince other luxury brand owners as such customers are in any case not a single buyer and they keep many other cars in their garage, said Akitoshi Takemura, Senior Vice-President, Lexus India.

The Japanese luxury brand of Toyota entered here with the launch of three models — RX Hybrid priced at ₹1.07 crore, RX F Sport hybrid at ₹1.09 crore, and ES 300h hybrid sedan priced at ₹55.27 lakh (all ex-showroom prices).

Lexus also unveiled its top-end SUV LX450d, along with the fifth generation Lexus LS, which will be available for sales from next year, along with the announcements of the prices.

It has started with four dealerships – New Delhi, Gurugram, Mumbai and Bengaluru – and will establish service centres at Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kochi.

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