HYDERABAD: The craze for sleek, fast and classy cars is catching up with Hyderabadis. The fascination for luxury cars and superbikes among the well-off has gone up a notch over the past year as citizens are willing to up the stakes and splurge cash on extravagant, lavish machines.
Gone are the days when the affluent were admired for their possession of sedan cars like Swift DZire and Honda City. Luxury has grown to another level and we have a growing presence of ultrarich ready to spend crores on high-end global brands like Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Jaguar among others. If cars that cost beyond Rs 40 lakh can be considered premium or luxury vehicles, the figures available with the Telangana State Transport department is staggering.
The row of super bikes that landed in the city during the last one year is even more astonishing. The ads are shifting gears for an exotic lifestyle. A cursory look at the figures will reveal that price is not a barrier for youth who aspire to swanky cars and super bikes. During the first 5 months of the financial year 2015-16, a Land Rover Range Rover with a price tag of Rs 2.5 cr found a customer in the city. Meanwhile, a Tiger Explorer bike from British motorcycle manufacturer Triumph costing Rs 19 lakh was the costliest bike registered in Telangana.
High-end cars from automobile giants like Audi, BMW, Mercedes Benz, Porsche, Jaguar, Toyota and Volvo are no more offcomer for denizens in Hyderabad. Instead it is flying machines and super luxury cars like Ferrari, Bentley, Mini Cooper and Rolls Royce that have caught the imagination of automaniacs. “Hyderabad continues to be the hub of films, sports and business in the two states today. Naturally, the super-rich aspire to bigger brands. In Telangana, most of the luxury cars and bikes are registered in 5 RTOs in Hyderabad and 5 in Rangareddy districts,” said Sandeep Kumar Sultania, Transport commissioner of Telangana.
The rise in super bike market has been phenomenal here in Hyderabad. Riding on the new found craze, super brands including Kawasaki, BMW, Ducati, Suzuki, Harley Davidson, Honda, KTM, Triumph, Benelli, Hyosung, MV Agusta, Husqvarna and Aprilia have set the market vrooming in top gear.
As per the statistics available, as many as 355 super cars have been registered in the State from April 1, 2015 till date.
This is marginally lesser than the total number of super cars registered during the entire year in 2012-13, when the figure stood at 368. The spike in aspirations for super cars and super bikes have attracted big brands to the Pearl City.
While 600 super cars were registered in 2013-14, as many as 706 cars were registered the next year. With around 7 months left for the completion of financial year, the Transport department has registered more than half of the last year’s figure, indicating a new record by the end of the year.
The craze for super bikes is visible in the steep rise in registration of these machines. While only 83 super bikes were registered in the entire state in 2012-13, the registration figure for the first five months of the current financial years stands at 283. When 182 super bikes were registered in 2013-14, the numbers rose to 341 the 2014-15.
“Hyderabad continues to be the hub of films, sports and business in the two states today. Naturally, the super-rich aspire to bigger brands.
In Telangana, most of the luxury cars and bikes are registered in 5 RTOs in Hyderabad and 5 in Rangareddy districts,” said Sandeep Kumar Sultania, Commissioner, Telangana.
Audi, BMW and Mercedes Benz are the most common luxury cars that figure in the list whereas among bikes, it is the KTM followed by Harley Davidson.