11 February, 2009
The recession has taken a heavy toll over the car industry. In 2008, car imports shifted towards negative scale as people opted to buy locally assembled car due to the high price of the imported cars.
Many car manufacturers are still hopeful that despite the economic conditions the car sales will go up with the support of new products and think dealerships will help to reach the satisfactory sales figure by spreading their network in the new cities.
Mr. Peter Kronchnabl, President, BMW India said “We will watch the sales over the next two-three months before we decide our annual sales targets. But we hope to do better than last year.”
Even Mercedes-Benz is optimistic and expects to get good sales volume in the troubled market condition.
Dr. Wilfried Aubur, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mercedes-Benz India said, “The year 2009 will be a challenge in view of the current economic situation, however, we are well poised to retain our leadership in this market-space.”
According to a recent study conducted by the J.D. Power and Associates, the car imports were reduced by 4 per cent to 4,951 units in 2008 whereas the luxury car domestic sales saw a good growth. This is mainly attributed to the fact that luxury cars like BMW and Audi assemble some models locally in India.
According to Mr. Rod Wallace, Managing Director, Precision Cars India, "The economic slowdown is impacting car manufacturers worldwide but 2009 is an important year for India as we introduce the first four-door Porsche, the Panamera, to the world. We are confident of increasing our sales in the country with the Panamera which should reach India in the last quarter of 2009."
It seems that luxury car manufacturers are holding high hopes with the year 2009 and coming up with new cars to beat the blues of recession in the car industry.
source: http://www.carazoo.com/autonews
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