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Das WeltAuto, Volkswagen Passenger Cars India’s pre-owned car business is expecting a 10 per cent growth this year. The company sold 30,000 used cars in 2023 and grew by 12 per cent.
Introduced in 2012 and present in 137 facilities, Das WeltAuto provides consumers with pre-owned cars from Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) across the country.
“We realised that that the difference between used and new car buyers is diminishing. Earlier, a new car buyer had to pay twice as compared as a used car buyer, however, today many customers are trying to purchase a used car as their first car. As a brand, we have decided to transition from Das WeltAuto which is already a big brand in the used car market and transfer it to a Volkswagen-certified pre-owned car business. As a standalone business, the pre-owned car business is a strong driver, it gets us new customers to experience our brand,” said Ashish Gupta, Brand Director, Volkswagen Passenger Cars India.
Further, the company’s 30-35 per cent of sales come from trading where customers who own Volkswagen cars exchange them and purchase a new car.
“First-time buyers for our new cars are less than 15 per cent because our car prices start above ₹10,00,000. Our adoption for first-time buyers is more in SUV with Volkswagen being the second car in the family,” he said
Positive outlook
The Indian used car industry will grow to $70.48B while the car sales are expected to reach 10.92 million units by FY28 according to the Indian Blue Book (IBB) Report 2023. The IBB report by car&bike and Das WeltAuto by Volkswagen states that 45 per cent of buyers purchasing pre-owned cars prefer local dealers, followed by auto tech start-ups and OEM-backed brands. Around 62 per cent of buyers would avail of car leasing in the future which contributes to up to 5 per cent in the Indian automobile industry.
While 65.30 per cent of buyers prefer pre-owned petrol cars, 56 per cent of car buyers stated that they would not prefer an electric used car.
“Electric is a nascent car market. In the last three years, 2,00,000 electric vehicle (EV) units were sold and many of the vehicles have not come to the used car market. However, there is apprehension in the minds of customers looking for used electric cars because the resale has not been settled and the issues in EVs are still not known. As the penetration in new EVs increases it will start settling down,” added Ashish Gupta.
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