#ShiftingGearsWithSwatiK: Super luxury market should rebound much faster than mass volume market says Sharad Agarwal, Head, Lamborghini India

Huracan EVO RWD and Urus are driving the order bank of Lamborghini, says Sharad Agarwal, Head, Lamborghini India. During an exclusive interview with Swati Khandelwal, Zee Business, Sharad Agarwal said, since its launch, we have delivered 1 Urus per week, which is unheard of in the super-luxury segment. He added, the vehicle is contributing more than 50 per cent of our business and is really expanding the future customer base for us. The interview was live on Zee Business Facebook page yesterday.

Talking about the lockdown period and how things worked in the last few months, Agarwal said, the COVID-19 situation in India remains very uncertain. We are seeing that the cases in India are now rising at the fastest pace and we are clocking the fastest cases across the globe. So, this remains still uncertain and challenging for us that when we do the curve in India flattening, we start to see the decline and hope that the situation starts reaching back to normal. This is one challenge but yes, we know that from June the government started pushing for unlocking of the economy. Now all our dealerships and workshops are operational effective from 8 June. So, post-Unlock 1.0, we are seeing a few positive trends in the market. I should say, yes our after-sales business is now clocking about 70-80% of the normal period, which is s very positive indication for the business. We are seeing that the customer orders have started coming in post-Unlock and we have also started delivering new cars. There are many positive things we are seeing in the business. But yes what we also have to keep in mind is that Lamborghini is about touch and feel, it is about emotions and this is probably not a right time for a customer to express themselves with their own Lamborghini in the social circle or where they want to drive and enjoy the car. So, we see that the priorities of the customers for the next few months may be different and it will be driven by setting their businesses in the right direction in these challenging times. But we also assure that once we see that the vaccination is around and things start getting more positive and close to the launch on that direction, the super-luxury market should rebound much faster than the mass volume market.

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When asked about the product/ model that is seeing good demand and geographies from which it is coming from, Agarwal said, for us, we have started 2020 at a very strong note at beginning of the year, we launched Huracan EVO RWD that helped us to start on a very positive order bank for this year. You also know that Urus continues to be strong in terms of its demand and desire among our customer segments. So these two models are driving our order bank and also our growth in India. What we have seen that despite these challenging times our customers have still kept their commitments and orders. So, we are not seeing any kind of cancellation in the market, which is very positive news for us. Also after the businesses started opening again we are receiving the orders for Urus as well as for sports cars. It is just not enquiries, yes we have received new orders during this period and the order bank is coming from across the country, so I can’t really say that it is the North, which is responding or it is the south, which is responding. I think it pretty fairly balanced across all four parts of the country, which is again positive news for us to look at the business in these times.

Commenting on the Indian journey of Urus and the response that the vehicle has received in the country, Agarwal said, just to give you a perspective, you know since the time we launched Urus, we have delivered 1 Urus per week and this is unheard of in the super-luxury segment. Today, Urus is contributing more than 50 per cent of our business and is really expanding the future customer base for us. When we were launching this car we were always saying that it is going to multiply our volumes to two to three times in the coming years and this is what we have seen in the last two years since the time, we have launched Urus in the Indian market. Plus, this is also going to drive the future growth of super sports cars because there are a lot of people who had the desire and ambition to own a Lamborghini and they always wanted to have one in their life. But they had practical challenges in India in terms of infrastructure, congestion in the traffic and they were not finding it very practical to use. Urus is a perfect answer because you can enjoy the car in India on the highways with the family. And now when they are having Urus in the family they are also getting aligned that they should also evaluate to have the super sports car with them because now they are getting the perspective of the lifestyle. This is what going to change the future perspective of business also for us.

#ShiftingGearsWithSwatiK is a Zee Business exclusive series created to reveal the extent of COVID-19 impact on the world’s leading auto brands, their pivot strategies in the New Normal and much beyond that.