BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Audi fail to meet the Indian cutomers' rising demand

There is a long que outside the Luxury car showrooms with customers lined up in wait to drive their dream car like Porsche Cayenne , BMW X1, Audi A8 and Mercedes S500 home. The luxury car makers have been failing to meet the trailing rising demand of the Indian customers  nearly for the last two quarters.

The sales of the premium cars has gone through the roof with a growth of 70% in comparison to the last fiscal year.

Speaking on the situation Mercedes Benz India sales and marketing director Debashish Mitra said that the luxury car makers tried their level best to meet the constantly increasing demand of the customers however the demand outstripped the supply.

It is being predicted by the industry officials that the customers who have booked the luxury cars might have to wait for 3 to 4 months for the delivery which is usually done within 4 to 6 weeks.

The work is on full swing at the factories of the premium car makers like Audi, BMW and Mercedes, trying hard to fulfill the ever increasing demand. Looking at the average waiting period for the delivery these car makers dread losing the customers to their competitors.

The reason behind the waiting period is that most of the cars are assembled in the country leading to slower supply. Also, most of these cars are highly customized, pushing delivery periods . The waiting period for Porsche is more in comparison to other brands since its cars are customised as per the buyer's specifications. Porsche India director Ashish Chordia said that the exclusive options offered by the company like special colors, matching painted interior and initials of the owner embossed add up to the delay in delivery.

On the contrary the order book is growing faster that supplies. Porsche has managed to deliver just 131 cars out of 379 bookings for the Cayenne SUV in 2010.

BMW has aggravated the production  to three-fold at its Chennai facility and is producing 8000 units in a year. But it failed to check the long-waiting backlog for its largest selling 5Series sedan and the newly launched X1 its compact sports utility vehicle , which now takes 4-6 months to reach customers.

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