Luxury automakers sell more pre-owned cars than new ones in 2024: Report

The growth in demand has been driven not just by NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru and other metro cities alone, but also by emerging tier-2 and tier-3 cities, the paper said.

More Indians opted for pre-owned luxury cars in 2024 compared to new ones, underlying the country’s growing affair with premium vehicles, a Business Standard report said on May 5.

The last calendar year saw the sale of 80,000 pre-owned cars in the country, compared to 50,000 new ones, which was the highest-ever, the report said.

Experts believe that the domestic automobile market is fast moving towards more premium offerings, which can be deduced from the growing share of utility vehicles, the newspaper said.

Utility vehicles accounted for 65 percent of total passenger vehicle sales in 2024, with sports utility vehicles alone dominating the segment with over 50 percent of the sales, BS said.

BMW Group India President and chief executive officer Vikram Pawah told the newspaper that used-luxury car segment is witnessing a “very strong interest” from “young and successful people”, and the average age of owners has come down to 35 to 40.

The carmaker said its pre-owned car business registered a 47 percent on-year growth in 2024. Other carmakers such as Mercedes-Benz, Volvo Car India and Audi India have also witnessed strong sales in the previous calendar year.

The growth in demand has been driven not just by NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru and other metro cities alone, but also by emerging tier-2 and tier-3 cities, the paper said.

The growth has been contributed by easy financing options, certified programmes and reasonable maintenance offers, BS said.