Audi, owned by Volkswagen and based in Ingolstadt, is now the numero uno in the luxury car segment in India after topping its arch rival BMW with more sales in the first quarter of 2013. However BMW says that a month to month comparision in a single region is not what matters to it. Mercedes Benz has silently regained the second slot thereby pushing the Munich-based car manufacturer to the third place.

While BMW has only 1465 cars sold this first quarter from January to March of 2013 of which 1410 units were BMW-branded vehicles and 55 were Mini-branded cars, 40% fewer than last year's first quarter sales. Audi astonishingly managed 2,616 units recording a growth of 15% and Mercedes Benz India sold 2009 units growing by over 5%.

Officials at the BMW said "The BMW Group is a very successful global company and continues to strive for a worldwide balance in sales. We will continue to our success story in India in 2013 due to the availability of new models such as the BMW 1 Series in the third quarter and a full year availability of the BMW 3 Series this year”.

Audi was on a high horse however after righly winning over the rival after a long gap. Audi's Head of the Audi India said that this number for the first quarter will keep them ahead for the rest of the year too. Even if the worst is to be expected, he said exuding confidence, that their year would end on a strong number two or would be defending our number 1 position if things fall in place, as planned.

(AW- Anil)