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Audi threatens BMW’s leadership  

With increasing sales in the luxury car segment in India, the tussle between the major players like BMW and Audi is getting even more intense. These leading luxury car makers are leaving no stone unturned to grab the top selling luxury car maker’s position in India. However, the strategy they have been adopting to achieve superiority in India are very different altogether. While some are offering heavy discounts on their cars to boost the sales figures, some have been maintaining that they don’t believe in offering deep discounts to increase sales.

Recently in an interview given to a leading business daily in the National Capital, BMW’s recently appointed president, Mr. Philipp von Sahr said that BMW is fully confident of maintain the leading position in the Indian market. However, the company is not looking forward to get in to a price war in India. He added that some of company’s competitors believe in achieving top position only by offering heavy discounts.

From January to October’12 (first 10 months of this calendar year), BMW India managed to sell a total of 7,389 units of their cars in India as compared to 7,267 vehicles sold by Audi. While BMW’s growth was marginally negative during this period, Audi India registered a whooping sales growth of 55 percent. Commenting on Audi’s rapid surge in the Indian luxury car market, Mr. von Sahr said that the company is not worried of Audi closing in on their leadership position, as they are not considering month on month numbers but rather on maintaining a sustainable leadership.

Reacting to this statement, Audi India has said that the company has been growing on strong fundamentals in the country and there is no question of gaining numbers by offering big discounts. According to the company, the factors that are helping the company in fuelling their growth include launch of a series of new models and increasing presence through retail outlets.