Lexus to enter India by end of 2016
Lexus is likely to enter India sometime by the end of this year. The Toyota-owned brand will have its separate outlets in the country. According to an Economic Times report, Lexus will foray into India with the RX SUV, the ES sedan and the RC-F coupe. Once launched, the Lexus RX SUV will compete against the BMW X3 and the Audi Q5. It is being reported that the hybrid variant of the Lexus ES could also be launched to India while the Lexus RC-F coupe will command a price tag of over a crore.
According to the report, the company has already made the requisite preparations, and the dealerships are ready to be inaugurated for customers. The exclusive Lexus dealerships will initially be opened in Mumbai and Delhi. The Lexus models will be imported into India as fully built units. It is being reported that Lexus will start accepting bookings sometime before the end of 2016, and deliveries will also begin around the same time.
When quizzed about their expected market reaction, a company official told the Economic Times that Lexus is a strong brand globally and they feel that India will be no different. With respect to their plans of assembling the models locally, the company official declined to comment saying it's too early. Lexus first wants to understand the Indian market and analyse the reaction before taking any further decisions.
In international markets, Lexus competes with other luxury brands like Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo. In the USA, Europe and China, Lexus sold more units than Jaguar and Land Rover. Last year, it was the second most popular car brand after BMW in the USA with only a few thousand units separating the two. It will be interesting to see how the brand fares once it arrives on our shores.
Source: Economic Times