China is insanely big, yes, but we are proud of India!

Even today, a majority of Indians are unable to comprehend the size of China and its progress. It’s not that India has not progressed. It has definitely progressed. In the last several decades, governments at the centre, whether it was the Congress or the BJP, or a coalition of parties, have ensured steady growth in development through some very good economic policies.

I am not getting into the nitty gritties of economic development achieved by both the countries. So as to make people in India realise the sheer size of China let me dish out some figures pertaining to luxury car sales in India and China.

We all know our growing middle class is getting richer by the year and a lot of youngsters are opting for expensive and luxurious cars from the stables of Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Let’s, therefore, compare the sales of these cars vis-à-vis those in China.

First, the good news. It’s been a great year for these three luxury car brands in India in 2023 in terms of retail sales. Audi India retailed 7931 units in the period January to December 2023, a growth of 89 per cent. Positive growth for Audi India followed on the back of three new product launches: Audi Q3 Sportback, Audi Q8 e-tron and Audo Q8 Sportback e-tron. Audi India sells a basket of models in the country that include the Audi A4, A6, Q5, Q7, Q8, A8L, S5 Sportback, RS5 Sportback, RS Q8, Audi e-tron GT and RS e-tron GT.

BMW Group India continued its record-breaking success in 2023 by posting the best-ever annual sales (January – December) – for all three brands – BMW, MINI and BMW Motorrad. BMW Group India delivered 14,172 cars (BMW and MINI). While BMW sold 13,303 units, MINI sold 869 units.

The third luxury brand Mercedes-Benz India delivered 17,408 new cars in the January-December 2023 period, registering 10% Y-o-Y sales growth. This sales milestone made CY 2023 the ‘Best Year Ever’ for Mercedes-Benz in India. In CY 2022, Mercedes-Benz India had sold 15,822 units.

In contrast, one luxury car maker, Audi, delivered around 1.9 million vehicles globally in 2023 and is starting a challenging year from a position of strength.

Deliveries of more than 178,000 fully electric vehicles resulted in an increase of 51 percent compared to 2022. The high demand serves as a robust foundation for a challenging year of transformation with a clear focus on electromobility for Audi.

The company delivered a total of more than 729,000 cars to customers in China and Hong Kong for an increase of more than 13 percent compared to the previous year. In all other markets worldwide, Audi delivered around 190,000 vehicles (+19 percent) in 2023. Of these markets, Argentina (+109 percent), India (+90 percent), Mexico (+32 percent), and Australia (+29 percent), for example, saw a strong growth.

Thus, if any government in power says we are growing into several trillion dollar economies in the near future, you need to understand whether the trillions are confined to a handful of people or are people at large becoming richer and buying products that are a tad expensive.  China may not be a good neighbour to us, but the fact is that it is insanely big. Yet we are proud of our own progress!