One of the main poll issues, during the recently held general elections, in Punjab was its fiscal deficit which is around `80,000 crore but this has failed to deter the spirit of the Punjabis and their love for big cars.
According to popular perception in the State and its capital Chandigarh, living life king size has always been the mantra of the high flying Punjabi aristocrats, and with time the middle class and the upper middle class is fast catching up the romance, with the mean machines.
If one sees the figures of domestic car market and the sales of car, in the last quarter of the fiscal year 2013, the picture is that of gloom and despair with sales dipping with every passing quarter. However, even in this depression 1,500 unit of luxury cars were sold in Punjab. The sales pundit of luxury brand says that around four units are sold everyday.
The luxury car brand range includes Mercedes, BMW and Audi. Porsche, Rolls-Royce and Jaguar are other high end brands. A look at their sales figure clearly shows that slowly and steadily they are catching the fancy of the customers in the region.
The love for big cars has resulted in burgeoning sales of sport utility vehicles (SUV) in the market. A leading car dealer in the city said that out of every five cars sold in the region, one is a SUV. Earlier it was the young car enthusiast who preferred buying these big cars but since 2009, a new trend has emerged with retired people going for these fat toys, given the space, comfort and durability.
Even the big brands are excited with the sales and they are leaving no stone unturned to reach out to their customers, to promote their brand. Recently Mercedes launched a new state-of-the-art showroom in Mohali, a fast growing market of luxury car brands.
“Mercedes has always been the favourite brand in the region. If one sees the recent sales figure, out of the 1500 luxury car brands sold in the region, 638 were Mercedes which is around 40 per cent of the total sale. Punjab is the State which accounts for the maximum number of Mercedes car sales in India,” said Eberhard Kern, managing director and CEO, Mercedes Benz India.
Manjit Singh, a sales person who deals in luxury car brands said that Punjab has always been a prosperous State and people in the region have an affinity for better lifestyle. Cars are only a part of it. It is true that the region is seeing an economic slide for the past few years but the middle-class is strong and the youngsters from the middle class families have more dispensable income as compared to their parents.
Earlier people had other priorities rather than buying a car, but now in Punjab as compared to the rest of the country, a person prefers to buy a car rather than going for a bike. The main reason behind this behaviour is the notoriety of the region associated with accidents. Plastic money and easily available credits from the fast evolving private banking sector has boosted the sales especially in case of luxury cars, he added.
Where there is nectar there are bees, and this is the region all luxury car brands are flocking in the region to boost up their sales. The sales strategies have also changed.
Recently BMW India demonstrated the dynamism, versatility and high performance of its entire product portfolio with the BMW Experience Tour 2014 in Chandigarh at Exhibition Ground, Sector 34.Chandigarhis the fourth city to host the 12 city tour.
Philipp von Sahr, president BMW Group India, said, “With the BMW Experience Tour across India, BMW India is happy to give customers an opportunity to experience the exhilarating superiority of the BMW cars in a challenging and exciting environment. This is one of a kind event being organised at such a scale in India. With this unique initiative, we wish to take a step closer to our customers and bring as many customers to the BMW fold and make them experience BMW and Sheer Driving Pleasure.”
The bait is being gobbled up by both the traditionally rich and the nouveau-rich customers in the region. However, the competition is tough with more and more brands trying to make their presence felt in the region. Brands like Nissan, Jaguar and Volvo are also campaigning aggressively to assert their presence in the market.
Audi is another brand which has succeeded in impressing the astute buyers of the region. Punjab has many NRI’s leaving abroad and the internet revolution has brought people closer. With NRI money pouring in the region and social networking sites being flooded with pictures of luxury cars abroad, the car buying trend in the region is evolving at a great speed. Audi is one brand which has thrived on this.
Audi became the first luxury car brand in India to cross 10,000 units’ sales in the year 2012-13, with Punjab and Haryana being one of the major contributors as potential buyers. The boom of hotel industry in the region has also assisted in the sales.
“Punjab has been one of the major markets for luxury car brands in India. The response to our brand in the region has been really heartening and seeing this we have multiplied our efforts in reaching out to customers of the luxury car market,” said Joe King, Head Audi India.