BYD, which has emerged the top selling electric car brand worldwide, is hoping to replicate its success story in India too.
Given the response to its recently launched Atto 3, the Chinese EV maker has reasons to be upbeat about the road ahead. “Surprisingly, most BYD customers associate the company with Warren Buffet rather than a Chinese brand,” says Rajiv Vohra, Director-BYD, Landmark Group.
In his view, this is largely due to the fact that the Atto 3's buyer base largely comprises top corporate honchos who are more than aware of high profile investors like Warren Buffet and his interest in the electric car brand (even while he has been making news in recent months for offloading part of his stake).
While this remains the overwhelming majority, there are still about 4% of Landmark customers who are hesitant to go in for the Atto 3 because of BYD’s Chinese origin. The fact that tensions along the border have risen over the last couple of days may have done little to ease sentiments among this category of buyers.
Vohra says the dealership network in Mumbai and Delhi has already received 350 bookings for the Atto 3 which is nearly a quarter of the tally nationwide. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in a month.
“I would think that most of the bookings are confirmed. Even after the price was announced, we haven't seen too many people cancel their bookings,” he adds.
Perhaps this had to do with the fact that this was in sync with customer expectations of a price range of over INR 30 lakh for the vehicle. Most of them are in the 25-40 age group and, interestingly, none of the bookings made so far have been done online.
Never mind that nearly 60% of potential buyers had learned extensively about the Atto 3 online. When it came to booking the electric SUV, they preferred to come to the dealership and see for themselves what it was about.
Incidentally, nearly 10% of customers who booked the Atto 3 had contemplated buying BYD’s earlier offering, the e6, but changed their mind subsequently. “This is because they wanted an SUV and opted for the Atto 3,” reckons Vohra.
Whilst on the subject of the e6, this MPV was initially launched only for the B2B fleet segment. However, of the 200 vehicles that Landmark has retailed in Mumbai and Delhi, around 40% have been delivered to B2C customers.
Vohra believes that as test drives kick off for the Atto 3, the corporate sector will also begin queuing up for the vehicle. Right now, customers who have made the booking already own two to three other vehicles.
“These people are the early adopters and believe in doing something for the environment. There are some individuals who have longer running cycles and feel that an electric vehicle will work for them,” he adds.
The current pace of enquiries indicates that the waiting period for the Atto 3 may extend to 3-4 months. Everything will now depend on how quickly BYD begins despatching vehicles from January and copes with the growing demand.
During the unveiling of the product, the company had announced that it would deliver 500 units in the first batch and target sales of 15,000 units of Atto 3 during the following calendar.
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