Gone in 60 sec: Ultra-luxe cars beat Covid blues | Economic Times

Mercedes-Benz has already sold out the entire lot of the super luxury GLS-Maybach it plans to bring to India in 2021, and has started taking bookings for delivery next year.The vehicle, with a price tag of Rs 2.5-4.3 crore before road tax was launched on Tuesday. The German automaker has reserved 50 units of the SUV for India this year.More than 50 units of Lamborghinis, costing over Rs 3.5 crore each, have also been booked for this year. Audi is getting steady orders for its top-of-the-line models priced above Rs 1 crore, compared with the Rs 50-75 lakh range.The trend suggests demand for ultra-luxury vehicles is largely unfettered by Covid-19. The super-rich, the typical buyer of these vehicles, is largely unaffected by the economic turmoil caused by the pandemic. Sales had taken a hit last year during the first wave of Covid-19 due to uncertainty over the economy, but customers have now realised that a recovery could happen quickly as well and are more confident to spend, industry executives said.83358583In the past too, the top end has outperformed the other segments in the luxury range during a crisis, Mercedes-Benz India managing director Martin Schwenk told ET. “There is a strong resilience in the marketplace.”Balbir Singh Dhillon, the head of Audi India, cited an increasing ‘YOLO’ (You-Only-Live-Once) attitude among high-flying individuals as one of the reasons for the strong demand. “…the sense I get is that, over the pandemic people have experienced the fragility of life and want to celebrate their time to the most with their loved ones,” he said.Confident CustomersThe number of potential customers is also growing. According to a Hurun Research report, India added one billionaire every 10 days in 2020. The country had more than 2.5 lakh dollar-millionaires last year.The market for super luxury cars — priced above Rs 1 crore — was a little over 1,000 units before the pandemic, and Mercedes-Benz sold about half those.While sales in the mainstream market are expected to recover slowly over the coming months, the high-end luxury car segment may be quicker to bounce back, executives at these companies said. The numbers may still be at the 2018-2019 levels, before a slowdown hit the automobile market.Mercedes-Benz expects to do "significantly better" in 2021 compared with 2020, but India chief Schwenk said it would be some time before the peak sales seen in 2018 could be crossed again.Lamborghini is predicting its best sales ever in India this year — the Italian brand that has so far sold 100 units of the Urus SUV cumulatively in India expects to do more than 50 in 2021 itself.Executives at luxury-vehicle makers said their customers were more confident of an economic recovery now than they were during the first wave of Covid-19."Last year’s V-shaped recovery which we had seen has given business people the confidence that businesses and markets will come back fairly strongly," Mercedes-Benz’s Schwenk said.UNEVEN IMPACTThe trend in various market segments highlights the uneven impact of the pandemic and the divide exacerbated by it between the wealthy and the mainstream population. The second wave of infections has hurt the incomes and business of the majority of the population, added to the medical emergencies of people and made others cautious about spending. As a result, sales of two-wheelers and entry-level cars have taken a hit."The K-shaped recovery meant that some people have generated ultra wealth. Subsequently, the luxury segment has been doing well," said Ravi Bhatia, president of automotive business intelligence firm Jato Dynamics.A K-shaped recovery refers to different segments of the society recovering from a crisis at different rates.While executives are largely optimistic that the strong demand will sustain, Sharad Agarwal, the head of the Lamborghini brand in India, is also cautious."We need to see how the market will rebound in the coming months," he said. "We anticipate a V-shaped recovery. As our entire model range is on a waiting period of 8-10 months, we will see the real impact on 2022 deliveries from the second wave in India."