Mercedes, BMW and Audi now focusing on small cities
Published On Feb 15, 2010 01:16 PM By Meenal
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Mercedes Benz SLS AMG, the new super luxury car launched by German car manufacturer in India has already received 6 bookings though it is coming with a whooping price tag of Rs 2.5 crores. But the thing which interests market watchers the most is that these 6 bookings includes 1 booking from city of Ahmedabad. Major luxury car manufacturers in India including BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi are now concentrating on small cities to enhance their consumer base as well as their dealership network including cities like Bhubaneshwar, Coimbatore, Goa, Indore, Surat and Lucknow.
According to Dr Wilfried Aulbur, MD and CEO of Mercedes-Benz India, the next big trend will be tier-2 and 3 cities where there are enough customers ready and looking for luxury cars. He also cleared company's intentions of acquiring a good market share in these 2nd and 3rd tier markets. Mercedes Benz India has started very well in these markets as its brand new dealership in Surat which was launched in December managed to sell about 11 units of its cars in period of just one month. While on the other hand sales in Gujarat as a whole stood to 30 units of Mercedes Benz.
On the other hand Mercedes Benz arc rival BMW has also started its expansion operations with announcement of plans of expending company's Chennai plant to catch-up with the rising demand in tier-2 cities. BMW India sold 3,690 cars last year and company is expecting to sell around 40-50 units of its cars in tier-2 and tier-3 cities per year, Peter Krnoschnabl, president of BMW India, told reporters last week. Besides this Audi, Germany based luxury car manufacturer is also enhancing its presence in cities like Jaipur, Kochi, Ludhiana and Pune.
Mercedes Benz's India portfolio contains more than half a dozen of cars including Mercedes Benz CL-Class, Mercedes Benz CLS-Class, Mercedes Benz E Class, Mercedes Benz M Class, Mercedes Benz S Class, Mercedes Benz SLK Class and Mercedes Benz SL Class while BMW's portfolio includes BMW 3 series, BMW 5 series, BMW 6 Series, BMW 7 Series, BMW X3, BMW X5 and BMW X6.
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