A growing uncertainty and discontentment amongst people has been quite noticeable and can be seen to surge at alarming rates ever since the world was struck by the COVID-19 pandemic. What made such changes to the thinking and behaviour behind these happenings is still being determined. Some may regard the sheer fragility of life and the uncertainty of the near future to be key to the fact that people have stopped overthinking and worrying too much about their future selves and would much rather enjoy the day as they live it. This is evident in how people have changed their spending habits, lifestyles, and other things.
With this comes the ‘need’ or ‘want’ for luxury travel. Luxury travel has many nodes, be it air travel that includes the finest amenities or cars that make one feel elated by their glamorous looks, the build quality, the bespoke interiors, or excellent drive quality. As an example, in India, SUVs and mid-sized SUVs have seen a quadruple growth in sales numbers since the year 2020. The growing innovation and boost in technological advancements has also called for Electric vehicles to show up and grab a chunk of this ever-growing market.
Electric vehicles definitely have the edge over the regular fuel-run cars since they save the cost of running for the end user, but they also prove to be more environment friendly since the lowered pollution levels and the impact on lessening the demand for fuel are both quintessential for the environment and our future generations. The other aspect of electric vehicles is that people feel a boost in morale and like to boast about how their smarter choices are helping save the environment from degrading further.
Car companies have realised the shift in consumer demands and the general trends of the markets and have enforced these by accelerating the production and development of such new SUVs, especially the ones that scream luxury. Now, even luxury can be deemed as one that is made to fit into budgets and one that is designed and priced to be attainable by only a handful.
Luxury car makers have tried their hand at these electric vehicles as well. Some namely examples include BMW iX and i7, Mercedes EQE and EQS, Audi e-Tron GT and Q8 e-Tron, Porsche Taycan, Volvo XC40, Jaguar I-Pace and Rolls-Royce Spectre. These brands have already promised to deliver high-end and class-art luxury to their customers, but other brands, such as Hyundai, KIA, BYD, etc, have also come up to grab a piece of cake in this market. Whether luxury or high-end electric vehicles, these brands have also extended their hand to innovate and deliver such products. Hyundai’s IONIQ-5 and Kia’s EV9 are both electric SUVs, and BYD’s Seal is an electric sedan, but they are all designed to deliver a sense of luxury amongst its buyers.
Tesla is known worldwide to produce one of the best electric vehicles while offering all the luxuries; playing on a gaming console connected to the car is seemingly one of them. On the other hand, luxury SUVs have also grown in numbers, with these similar brands going toe-to-toe to deliver the finest products. The changes in trends and people’s wants only seem to indicate further growth in these luxury SUVs and electric vehicles day after day. The only challenges electric vehicles face now are the lack of infrastructure and charging points available, the central issue of battery degradation, and the high replacement cost. On the other hand, SUVs, like other fuel-run vehicles, will always have the upper hand in gaining market traction, but only until some future sanctions are placed on petrol or diesel-operating cars.
