The world’s costliest car Aston Martin One-77 price starting from Rs 20 crore made

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its debut in the domestic market on Friday. Before the launch of One-77, Bugatti Veyron priced at Rs 16 crore, ex-showroom was the costliest car available in the Indian market launched in October, last year.

“We have sold 72 of the 77 limited edition One-77 car across the globe. Now only five are left and an Indian luxury car enthusiast has shown interest in buying a One-77 car,” said Bill Donnelly, sales and service director at Aston Martin. He however declined to name the buyer of the uber luxe car.

Donnelly further said, “India represents a new opportunity for us. The decision to bring the Aston Martin brand to India is driven by a strong level of interest and enthusiasm from potential customers in an emerging luxury market. We expect 25 per cent of total sales to come from Asia and Middle East in next five years.”

Expanding sales in West Asia, India and China have provided us new market opportunities with business in Europe and the US--our primary markets, stagnating, he said. Aston Martin sells 5,000 units per annum, globally.

In India, the company expects to sell around 50 cars across its portfolio by end of this financial year. Twenty cars are already on Indian roads, bought through individual importers. The United Kingdom headquartered Aston Martin will compete with other brands such as Ferrari, Maserati and Volkswagen AG's Lamborghini, who also have introduced their luxury cars in the Indian market.

Aston Martin has appointed Performance Cars, a division of Mumbai headquartered Infinity Cars has been appointed as dealer of the British marques. “We have received 20 bookings for various models of Aston Martin,” said Lalit Choudhary, managing director at Performance Cars. Infinity Cars also has a dealership of BMW. Aston Martin will open a second dealership in New Delhi by the end of May.

The company will sell the V8 Vantage, priced at Rs 1.55 crore, the Rapide at Rs 2.15 crore and the One-77 for Rs 20 crore, ex-showroom. Other models to be sold in India are V12 Vantage, DB9 Coupe, DB9 Volante, DBS Coupe among others. However, Aston Martin does not intend to introduce the small car Cygnet in India at present. “We might introduce it later, since the car needs to be homologated as per Indian conditions,” added Donnelly.

Aston Martin was in 2007 sold to American businessman John Sinders, Kuwait's Investment Dar and Adeem Investment by its erstwhile owner Ford Motor Company.