Buoyed by good sales automakers keep Indian date with luxury
Buoyed by good sales automakers keep Indian date with luxury
At a time when global markets are under the spell of the economic meltdown and India is eagerly waiting for the world's cheapest car Tata Nano, international car manufacturers are busy rolling out their high-end luxurious models.
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Hot wheels: (From top) Rolls Royce Phantom Coupe, Audi R8 and BMW X6 |
Japanese carmaker Honda Siel Cars India launched an advanced version of its premium sedan Accord with a 3.5 litre i-VTEC engine priced between Rs 24.8 lakh and Rs 25.35 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) on Thursday.
u00a0
Apart from the Accord, super luxury carmaker Rolls Royce Motor Cars Ltd, which sells the Phantom range of luxury sedans, recently, launched Phantom Coupe priced at over Rs 4 crore.
BMW has also expanded its portfolio for the Indian market with the addition of BMW X6u00a0 the first sports activity coupe (equipped with BMW Dynamics). Available in two variants -X6 xDrive50i (petrol) and X6 xDrive30d (diesel). The ex-showroom prices of the new BMW X6 are Rs 82,90,000 for the BMW X6 xDrive50i and Rs 65,90,000 for BMW X6 xDrive30d.
"The auto industry has been affected due to the slowdown but still we are doing well and we expect to grow in India. We expect the sales of the earlier version of Accord with 2.4 litre engine to be higher than this new model," said Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) Vice-President (Marketing) Jnaneswar Sen.
The company is eyeing to sell 14 cars in India in the current calendar year, same as it did in the last year.
"India is a major market for us in the Asian region and we hope to sell as many cars in 2009 as we did last year and it is an achievement," said Rolls-Royce Motor Cars General Manager (South and East Asia Pacific) Matthew J Bennett.
Other than new models being launched, international car manufacturers have seen a steady rise in the sale of their present models as well. German luxury car manufacturers Audi India has seen a sharp rise in the sales in the month of January and February 2009. In the year 2008, Audi India's vehicle sales volume grew by 201 per cent with the sale of 1,050 cars as compared to 349 units in 2007.
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Hot-sellers |
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Number of cars sold in Jan and Feb 2009
Jan 2008: 56 cars
Jan 2009: 109 units
Feb 2008: 58 cars
Feb 2009: 113 cars |
