While last year did see a slow-moving Indian auto market, the luxury car segment still saw plenty of action with a number of significant launches by the prominent luxury players present here. From entry level offerings to compact ones and even top-of-the-line flagship cars, the competition in this segment heated up quite a bit. The top two performers – Audi and Mercedes – had a neck-in-neck fight for the crown, with the former trumping the latter on total sales and Merc beating Audi with respect to year-on-year growth. Here's a look at the numbers.
Ingolstadt-based Audi seems to have closed 2014 with a strong punctuation. After Mercedes recently announced that the year 2014 saw its highest sales ever in India (10,201 units), Audi has announced that its total sales for the year stand at, a personal best, 10,851 units. Although the difference is not even a thousand units (650), it still is a very big margin, considering that it isn’t a mass market segment.
This was the first time Mercedes clocked more than 10,000 units sold, while for Audi, this was its second consecutive year of 10,000 or more units sold. Compared to 2013, Audi saw an improvement of more than eight percent in year-on-year sales, while Mercedes saw a growth of 13 percent.
Both manufacturers have been pretty aggressive when it comes to product launches in India. Audi’s latest launch was the A3 Cabriolet, and Mercedes is all set to introduce its answer to the A3 sedan – the CLA – very soon.
With such heated competition setting the tone, we presume the year ahead will see a lot more action and excitement at the premium end of the market.
Audi India
Sales in 2013: 10,002
Sales in 2014: 10,851
Percentage growth: 8 percent
Mercedes-Benz India
Sales in 2013:
Sales in 2014: 10,201
Percentage growth: 13 percent
Read our Audi A3 cabriolet review
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