BMW outsells Mercedes in January

27 February 2009

January 2009 is a landmark year for BMW in India as for the first time, it overtook Mercedese sales in the luxury car market in India.
BMW says it sold 270 cars and sports utility vehicles compared to Mercedes Benz's 89 units.

Voicing the upbeat mood of the markets, Peter Kronschnabl, president, BMW India, said, ''We were able to take the lead in January thanks to the success of the 3 and 5-Series. Around April we will get a clearer picture of market demand and will be in a better position to predict on following months.''

A significant shift from last year's figures when BMW sold 2,908 units compared to 3,621 units for Mercedes Benz. This year, the things seem slated to change in favour of BMW.

BMW has sold 994 units of the 5 and 6 Series sedans in the current financial year as compared to 490 units sold during the same period the previous year. Both models are in the range of Rs40 lakh to Rs85.5 lakh.

Meanwhile, Mercedes saw a rise of only 9 per cent in sales of the E Class at 883 units as against 810 units in the same period last year.

"Our customers are not that different from our competitors but the key to our success lies in the fact that we have been able to create the environment at our dealerships, service points, buying experience, which is on par with our global standards. Most of our 3-Series customers are young professionals", added Kronschnabl.