The Indian luxury car market, which currently stands at 1% of the overall car market, will expand further in the coming years, Balbir Singh Dhillon, Head, Audi India said while responding to a question by Mobility Outlook during the Q5 launch earlier Tuesday.
In smaller countries of South-East Asia, the luxury car market stands somewhere around 5-6%. In India, however, vehicle penetration is still at low levels.
“We are highly taxed. When GST was announced, the government indicated that it will remove additional cess of 22% after five years. By next year, we are hopeful of it being removed. If it is done then the luxury car market will expand. The economic indicators also look positive,” he added.
On the back of new launches and a positive outlook, Audi India is eyeing high double-digit growth in the next couple of years. In the first 10 months of 2021, the German luxury carmaker has recorded triple-digit growth of 136% vis-à-vis 59% growth of the overall luxury car market.
Apart from this, the company is also banking upon luxury used cars. Audi India has doubled its network to 14 outlets.
On Tuesday, Audi India launched its best-selling model Q5 with an aim to increase volumes. According to the company, the Audi Q range contributes over 45% of the total sales.
So far in 2021, the company has launched nine products – A4, S5, RS5, e-Tron 50, e-tron 5s, e-tron Sportback, e-tron GT and RS e-tron GT. There are plans of bringing in more products in both ICE and EV segments, Dhillon confirmed.
EVs in particular is an exciting segment for the company, and it aims to achieve 15% of its sales from EVs in the coming times. For this, the company is working to launch new affordable EVs, as the current range of electric vehicles from Audi ranges between INR 1 crore to INR 2.05 crore.