Growth in luxury for luxury cars despite the NCR diesel ban

A major churn of luxury cars sold in India have been diesel. For automakers like Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar Land Rover, these could have been tough times as there don’t have a single diesel engine under 2.0-litre displacement. Diesel is the dominating fuel for luxury cars and NCR is probably the biggest market too. Despite these hurdles, Mercedes-Benz and JLR have delivered a stunning growth in sales for the first quarter.

A strong growth of 45 percent for the Jan-Mar 2016 quarter period, crossing 1,000 units, on the back of extremely high demand for sales. On the other hand, Mercedes-Benz sold 3622 units in this quarter. These are their best results ever for a quarter.

Mr. Rohit Suri, President, Jaguar Land Rover India Ltd (JLRIL), said, “The Jaguar and Land Rover brands are now firmly established in India. The All-New Jaguar XE, which we introduced in the Indian market in February 2016 in petrol derivatives, has received a tremendous response. Also, the demand for Model Year 2016 Jaguar XJ, Range Rover Evoque and Discovery Sport continues to be extremely robust. We thank our esteemed customers for choosing Jaguar Land Rover and making this strong growth possible.”

Roland Folger, Managing Director & CEO, Mercedes-Benz India, commented “It is a significant achievement for us, as we have maintained our growth momentum in Q1 2016, despite facing multiple market challenges. We have been able to compensate the negative sales impact in the Delhi and NCR market, with a strong double digit growth achieved in most other markets across the country.