The ceasefire in West Asia is expected to help lift market sentiments in India, making luxury car customers who held back purchases to come back to showrooms to take deliveries, according to top officials of Mercedes-Benz, BMW Group and Audi in the country.
Having resorted to stocking up of parts and kits, the luxury carmakers hope that the pressure on supply chain will be eased while looking forward to a return to normalcy at the earliest.
“The ceasefire has come at the right time, and it is very important from a luxury buyer viewpoint because lot of our customers are dependent on how things are panning out in international market,” BMW Group India President and CEO Hardeep Singh Brar told PTI.
It is very important that this issue is put to rest, he said, adding, “If this issue is over, we expect a lot of customers who held back their purchases in quarter one to come back and go for higher purchases.” Expressing similar views, Mercedes-Benz India Managing Director & CEO Santosh Iyer said, “In March we had one of the best ever order intakes. What happened in the month was postponement of the order but we didn’t see any cancellations, but customers wanted to take deliveries in April and in future.”
As a consequence of the West Asia war, he said, “Because of the changing scenarios in capital markets etc there was a bit muted (sentiment), but we feel April and beyond should be good months, considering there is also festive in some pockets.”
Sharing similar sentiments, Audi India Brand Director, Balbir Singh Dhillon said, “The ceasefire is highly welcome as it prepares for the next phase of more certainty. Many of our customers run businesses themselves and are feeling the implications first hand.”
“For them – and for us as well – the general sentiment improves and with that readiness for spendings grows as well – all in light of a robust passenger car market in 2026 in general. Our industry moves upwards with positive sentiments, so we must welcome any constructive developments in the region.”
Iyer said due to the geopolitical situation there have been “some delays in parts and kits supplies” but the company has “enough buffer stock to manage some of those variances”.
Brar also said since BMW India also gets its kits and parts from Munich, the company had stocked up as the “lead time” is higher.
“As of now, we are sorted for this quarter but if this continues longer, then it can have impact on the future supplies,” he noted.