Chariots of Fire

The newest set of haute wheels to hit the Indian market this year

- YOGENDRA PRATAP

India shining's sparkle saga seems to have shed some of its tinsel magic on the domestic luxury car market, which has been booming like never before. Although semiconductor shortages and supply-chain disruptions due to Covid as well as the war in Eastern Europe-have thrown a spanner in the works, preventing sales figures from touching astronomical heights, they are still record breaking. Almost all premium and luxury car manufacturers have order books that run if not in the thousands then in the tens of thousands, and some of the car models are sold out for a few months at the least, but at times for the entire year. Another noteworthy trend is the market moving not only to premium cars but many more of those buyers are now ordering cars that cost upwards of ₹1 crore.

Also, among luxury cars, SUVs continue to be the preferred body style for the glitterati and the chatterati. They have the longest waiting periods among all of the premium cars because their raging demand is part of a world-wide phenomena. It's no wonder that even a niche company like Lamborghini has not only enjoyed its best year ever globally after launching its first ever SUV-the Urus-but has also continued to do well with the SUV contributing more than half its global sales and a much larger chunk of its burgeoning sales in India. In fact, despite its sales catalogue starting at nearly ₹4 crore, it's order book takes care of all sales for the year and this number is expected to be in three figures for the first time.