Jan-Mar quarter sales: BMW pips Mercedes to top position

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26 Aug, 2025 12:21

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BMW has regained the top spot in India's luxury car market after a gap of seven years beating Mercedes-Benz.

The sales numbers shared by the two companies pertain to the January-March quarter (Q1) of 2020.

BMW sold 2,482 units in Q1 2020 while Mercedes-Benz sold 2,386 units. BMW India sales comprised two brands - BMW (2,365 units) and Mini (117 units).

Mercedes-Benz, which has held onto its top position since 2015, is the leader in yearly sales.

In 2019, the three-pointed star brand clocked sales of 13,768 units as against 9,641 units sold by BMW during the same year.

During Q1 of 2019, BMW clocked its highest-ever Jan-Mar quarterly sales in India at 2,982 units while Mercedes-Benz sold 3,885 units.

Over 50 percent of BMW’s sales during Q1, 2020 came from the locally-produced sports activity vehicle (SAV) range such as the X1, X3, X5 and the X7. A strong contribution also came from the 5 Series and the 3 Series, the company said in a statement.

"The coronavirus pandemic presents a mammoth challenge to public health, industry, economy and our business. The current situation has brought many operational difficulties and eliminated valuable physical interactions with customers at dealerships," said Rudratej Singh, President and Chief Executive Officer, BMW Group India.

The coronavirus pandemic has made the government to issue a lockdown forcing auto companies to shut manufacturing and assembly operations while forcing dealers to down shutters to arrest the spread.

This is not the only ranking upset India has seen in recent times. Last year Tata Motors claimed that its two British brands Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR) had assumed the number three spot in India’s 32,000 units a year luxury car market toppling another German giant Audi.

"BMW Group India has introduced innovative, contactless and safe ways to meet the requirements of existing as well as potential customers together with dedicated dealer partners, expert teams and strong backbone of processes. Until normalcy returns, our focus will be on consistent digital interaction with our customers and maintaining the performance," Singh added.

Despite the severity of the downturn there will be no slowdown in pace of new model launches. Mercedes will launch the all-new GLS and the A-Class limousine.

"We started 2020 on a high note and our existing as well as newly launched products continued to draw customer traction till the time sales came to a complete stop, due to the current COVID-19 pandemic situation," said Martin Schwenk, Managing Director & CEO, Mercedes-Benz India.

Mercedes, BMW and Audi together control more than 80 percent of all luxury cars sold in India. JLR, Volvo and Lexus are some of the other luxury brands.