Aston Martin Arrives in India

Aston Martin joins Ferrari S.p.A, Maserati S.p.A and Volkswagen AG's Bugatti and Lamborghini units in India with the U.K.-based company Friday launching three models for the country's sports car enthusiasts.

"India represents a new opportunity for us," said Michael van der Sande, chief commercial officer at Aston Martin.

The company will sell the V8 Vantage, priced at 15.50 million rupees, the Rapide at 21.5 million rupees and the One-77 for 200 million rupees in Asia's third-largest economy that has already prompted Daimler AG, BMW AG, Audi AG, Bentley and Jaguar to introduce luxury cars for India's rising number of millionaires and billionaires.

"A decision to bring the Aston Martin brand to India is driven by a strong level of interest and enthusiasm from potential customers in an emerging luxury market."

Aston Martin on Friday starts a dealership in Mumbai and will open a second dealership in New Delhi by the end of May.

Expanding sales in India and China have provided global auto makers new market opportunities with business in Europe and the U.S.--their primary markets--stagnating.

Aston Martin was in 2007 sold to Kuwait's Investment Dar Co. K.S.C. and Adeem Investment by its erstwhile owner Ford Motor Co.

Will you spend Rs20 crore on Aston Martin?

Aston Martin announced that they will be entering India which is the one of the fastest growing markets for automobile in the world. The will be launching three new models in this country. Aston Martin, a British luxury sports car manufacturer joins the growing list of Lamborghini, Bugatti, Maseratti and Ferrari who have started selling their products in India to a big section of sports car enthusiasts.

Aston Martin’s chief commercial officer, Michael van der Sande, said that India is a new opportunity for them. This automobile company will be offering V8 Vantage which costs 15.5 million Indian rupees or USD $348,341, One-77 which costs 200 million rupees or $4.5 million and Rapide which costs 21.5 million rupees or $483,146.



Lalit Choudhary from Performance Cars, the official dealership for Aston Martin in Mumbai said that India is a big market and it is growing rapidly. Hence it cannot be ignored. Aston Martin is a very expensive car brand and over their past history of 97 years, they have sold just 5,000 cars to the richest in Asia, United States and Europe. This company is expecting to see one quarter or their cars to the Middle Eastern and Asian countries over the next 5 years.

Donnelly refused to reveal any details about the number of cars they are planning to sell. A second dealership will be opened at New Delhi by May. A lot of automobile makers are looking at Chinese and Indian markets to see their products as their Europe and US opportunities have started to dry up.

Aston Martin was a company found in 1914 and the inclusion of showroom in Mumbai increases the global dealership network to 134 dealers in 42 countries.

Audi: no city car, but more Q5s

Audi has no plans to introduce a car smaller than next year's A1 supermini, says CEO Rupert Stadler.

That means it won't be joining Seat and Skoda in borrowing the rear-engined, rear-wheel-drive city car platform that VW is developing.

The chassis has been doing the rounds of recent motor shows, in the guise of the VW Up!.

Stadler also said the company won't be looking to build anything more niche or extreme than the R8 supercar that has given the likes of Porsche, Aston Martin and Maserati a wake-up call.

However, he would like to see the Q5 family of compact 4x4s enlarged, which he thinks would be 'a very sensible step', and said he would 'not be against' a high-performance Q5, badged S or RS.

It's unlikely there will be a convertible Q5 like the concept car shown at the Los Angeles motor show last November, though.

'We got positive feedback from that car, but not enough to make us say "let's start it",' he said. 'There would not be sufficient markets interested in taking it.

'I have driven a development model and it feels very different to be sat so high up with the roof open, but it would be too much of a niche car.'