After initial hiccups, the luxury car segment in India is all set to zoom ahead in 2018, post-GST taking advantage of the growing trend to buy high-end cars.
Audi CEO for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Jerome A. Edward told The Hindu on Monday that the premium car segment had bounced back after facing problem for two months after rolling out of GST regime.
Mr. Edward, who was here to launch second generation Audi Q 5 here, said they would open a service centre at Vijayawada in a month to explore full potential of demand in the Amaravati-Vijayawada capital region.
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“Now we find GST quite business-friendly. Everyone has fallen in line. The market is also picking up,” he stated.
Mr. Edward said Andhra Pradesh accounts for 20% of Audi owners in TS and AP, which their company was confident of raising to 30% during the current year. Last year, Audi sold 160 plus in AP and 400 plus in TS. So far, 3,500 own Audi cars.
He said they had a full-fledged showroom and service centre in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam.
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Stating that they were investing heavily in AP on people, tools and workshops, due to encouragement extended by the State government to the automobile sector, he said the premium cars which had a total share of about 10% of the market would have ‘phenomenal’ growth ahead. On demonetisation, he said within a few months the manufacturers could able to revive their growth tempo.
On new Audi Q 5, he said the response to the ‘talk of the market’ model was so good that they had received bookings for 10 cars without knowing the price and the official launch in AP.