GenNext coughs up big bucks for luxury cars

When Ferrari launched its 488 GTB in Mumbai recently, there were three buyers waiting eagerly to take this iconic brand out for a spin. Its steep price tag at ₹3.88 crore was hardly a deterrent. What was even more interesting was that two of them were barely in their 30s.

Recalling this episode, Aurelien Sauvard, sales coordinator for Ferrari, says the luxury consumer in India has become distinctly younger.

With the luxury market here evolving over the last few years, he believes youth is eager to make a statement.

"Ferrari is one of the rare, luxury sports cars launching at least two new models a year, for the past five years.

That is a crazy pace, but the demand for our cars, especially from India, has shown that the art of luxury is alive in India, especially with the younger generation," adds Sauvard.

Seconding this, Roland Folger, Managing Director and CEO, Mercedes-Benz India says, "Luxury is always perceived to be related to aspirational value and in a country like India it is inherently true. It is satisfying for us that the average age of ownership for a Mercedes-Benz in India is around 37 years as compared with a higher average age (45 years) globally."

Though income and wealth demographics are an important factor for luxury marketers in identifying the best prospects, the age of the customer is also an extremely critical factor, says Kamal Basu, Head - Marketing, Volkswagen Passenger Cars.

"The younger generation are early adopters who are more willing to adopt and accept luxury brands into their lifestyle. People are extremely image-conscious and like to wear their personality on their sleeves. Cars demonstrate an individual’s lifestyle on how evolved, arrived and achieved they are in their professional life," he says.

Agreeing with this view, Sauvard maintains that Ferrari is increasingly being preferred by young, successful Indians on the look out for a super luxury automobile. "The new Indian luxury car customer is more forthcoming and aspiring with a steady wealth generation.

It is this shift in mindset that has paved the way for the success of the luxury car segment over the last couple of years," he adds.

In Mercedes-Benz, the new design language has been pivotal in making the brand young, cool and trendy among customer groups. Folger says the introduction of the new generation cars portfolio, spearheaded by the A-Class, was also one of the turning points in attracting a greater number of young buyers.

Though high networth individuals continue to be more discriminating about luxury items in India, brands with a rich pedigree and extraordinary history are realising that India's young population is the next potential target.  "We have been witnessing a lot of successful young entrepreneurs as well as lawyers, doctors and software professionals increasingly preferring a Mercedes-Benz.

This is an interesting trend as these customers are new to a luxury brand and want to gradually move up to higher models in our portfolio," says Folger. 

Be it a BMW, Rolls Royce, or a Ferrari, buying a ₹4 crore car comes easy to India's new age breed of young entrepreneurs, says Sharad Kachalia of the Mumbai-based Navnit Motors that deals in luxury cars. He insists unadulterated luxury is being delivered with even more elan to the new generation.

"Many of our young customers have studied abroad and are quite used to luxury products. They have made serious headway in their business early on, have the money and are eager to make a statement," he says.

Though "customers over 40 would generally buy the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta" (priced at ₹4.72 crore), Kachalia says the legendary GT and sports cars are the rage with GenNext. "The GT 458 Challenge, 458 Italia GT2 and 458 Italia GT3 sports cars are preferred by the younger generation," he adds. Most of these are priced at ₹3.5 crore plus.

Incidentally, a youngster who recently bought an Audi was inspired by his father who already owns a legendary Italian marquee brand, the F12 Berlinetta, priced at a whopping ₹4.87 crore. Mohit Dubey, Co-Founder and CEO of CarWale.com, says younger people have the financial ability these days to purchase luxury cars and are doing so.

For those who can afford it, even in their mid-20s, they are happy to go out and purchase an Audi, a BMW or Mercedes-Benz. As he puts it, age is no longer as important a factor as financial ability.

According to Dubey, the aspirational qualities and associated status of luxury car brands is the primary motivating factor for the younger, affluent consumer. The velocity of new model introductions and product line extensions has rapidly increased in India in the last 3-4 years.

“Some brands are now religiously introducing updates to their products each year, which is bringing us in line with the global `model year' culture," says Dubey. This is something that really catches the eye of youngsters.

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