British luxury supercar-maker McLaren Automotive launched McLaren Artura hybrid supercar in India, following a highly successful first year in this market which is McLaren’s latest and 41st territory. Nivedita Mukherjee spoke to Paul Harris, Managing Director – APAC and China, McLaren Automotive.
You have been in India for a year. Why India? How is this market important to you?
I have been in India many times. For me as an outsider, everytime I come back, there is a change in development. A positive one. The key indicators are the most important. And what do we see? The population is growing, we see there is an industrial nation which wants to become another factory centre for the world, with that comes entrepreneurship, with that comes start-ups, expertise and in certain areas, technology. For instance you are very strong in IT, medical and aerospace. There are big developments coming in aerospace. So I would say there are many indicators of India that are very positive and make it a very attractive market for us.
How many have you sold in India?
We have pretty much sold every single car that we have received. We have probably crossed 20 customers across cities.
What is the potential for a highly up-market product as Artura hybrid supercar?
We have quite a quite a lot of faith and interest in working with such a market. We are also very customer centric so customer is actually at the core of our targets and attention. Whoever is willing to spend above Rs 4 or Rs 5 crore, is still a small segment here but it would be remiss of us not to be present here and experience the potential growth. The McLaren Artura offers to our customers the latest in automotive technology and design. Our impact in the Indian market in our first year has been outstanding.
Infrastructure in India is still developing. Have you assessed the feasibility of this car here?
McLaren Automotive has one centre in Mumbai. We see infrastructure development taking mostly place outside the cities. We see it happening outside Mumbai more. In this context, the question of infrastructure is interesting as it involves the development of race tracks and we see there is something happening there as well and that is interesting to us. On the infrastructure side of it, yes we have assessed. Our approach to the market is a hub-and-spoke model. The hub is Mumbai and the spoke is the other cities. We look after people in a very personal way. Either we get to them or they come to us, come to the UK.
India and the UK are negotiating a free trade deal. Do you think that helps you?
Hope that is quickly done. From the McLaren perspective, it augurs positively for India-UK relations.
Are you present in China? How do you assess the two markets?
Of course we are present there, I see very much similarities between the two. They are in different phases of development. But generally speaking I do not compare. We are such a unique brand and we have such a high personal relationship with each of our customers.