India will sell more than 1,00,000 luxury cars a year by 2030, up from 48,500 sold last year, said Balbir Singh Dhillon, Head, Audi India.

However, he said, the country’s luxury car segment was still just over 1% of the total car market. ‘‘Luxury segment in the Southeast Asian market, even in reasonably developing countries, not obviously the size of India, account for 5-6% of the total car market and in some countries, including Taiwan, it goes up to 20%,” he told The Hindu during an interaction.

‘India’s market very small’

“So the range is between 5% and 20%. So we are still very small and I am hopeful that you know in the coming years the industry will grow and the luxury segment by itself will grow because in general, India’s luxury car base is very small,” he anticipated.

According to Dhillon, the automobile sector sold 48,500 luxury cars in 2023, of the 4.2 million total cars sales, which was the highest ever for India’s luxury segment.

“We were anticipating a double digit growth this year as well, but 7.5-8% growth is what we have seen in the first six months,” he observed.

He said the industry was expecting the segment to continue to grow further in H2 CY24. ‘‘We are hoping that in the second half of this year with the festive season, the growth will come back strongly. Also we are definitely anticipating the industry to be upward of, let us say 1,00,000 cars by 2030,” he added.

Changing demographics

Dhillion observed that the demography of luxury car buyers has changed. Until some 10 years ago, these buyers were the business community, real estate playera and some CEOs.

“Today the mindset is different and the demomgraphy has also changed. You have professionals, doctors, chartered accountants, tech professionals and start-up entrepreneurs or a decent double income earnking couple,” Mr. Dhillon commented.

‘You only live once’

According to him, post pandemic, the thinking process is, if I have money, I should also enjoy my money and luxury is one of the aspirations. These changes are traslating into more buying and easier decisions, which is akin to the ‘you only live once’ mindset of South Korean youth.

“Also, more young people are coming to buy luxury cars today. For instance, 42% of Audi buyers were people under 40. More and more younger buyers are buying despite car prices going up in the last 4-5 years,” Mr. Dhillion concluded.