Leading luxury carmakers expect 2022 to turn out to be the best ever in terms of sales, bettering the 2019 volumes, as the demand remains robust for high-end models.
The companies also expect the ongoing festive season to be robust in terms of dispatches despite the chip shortage woes continuing.
The domestic luxury car volumes stood at around 40,000 units in 2019, the best ever dispatches recorded by the industry in a year so far.
"The industry has become more resilient and with the third wave of Covid not being so severe, there has been a steady revival," Lexus India President Naveen Soni told PTI in an interaction.
The luxury car market is on V-shaped recovery path with strong demand from the luxury consumers mainly attributed to change in consumer behaviour, more successful start-ups, younger affluent consumers and local production leading to a higher sense of value, he added.
Soni noted that the current year has started well, both for the industry and for Lexus India.
"We are hoping that the demand for luxury cars will exceed the pre-pandemic level of 2019, which was the highest ever while the demand for Lexus in India has crossed our highest ever demand this July since the launch of operations in 2017," he added.
When asked about festive season sales Soni stated: "We are looking at demand for Lexus cars to be three times of the best demand we have seen since the brand launch in 2017." Lexus cars being hybrids are high on technology with higher dependence on semiconductor availability, however, the brand is trying its best to deliver cars to customers on time, he added.
Mercedes-Benz India MD & CEO Martin Schwenk said the company expects the strong sales momentum from the second quarter to continue in the coming festive period, as the customer sentiment remains very positive.
"The challenges, however, continue to be on the supply side, as we expect the semiconductor shortage to sustain during the festive period," he added.
The company's product launches however remain unchanged and it will bring in the much awaited EQS luxury sedan this festive period both in its AMG and series versions, Schwenk noted.