Porsche India sales fall 20-25% before India-EU FTA duty cuts

Buyers wait for duty cuts

Moneycontrol reported on 6 November that the decline comes as customers anticipate lower import duties under the India-EU trade agreement. Ferrari customers expect at least a 35% price drop, the report said.

The Hindu reported on 21 October that Ferrari's orders from India had more than doubled in anticipation of the FTA, even as Moneycontrol reported that dealers were struggling to convert bookings into purchases. Asked whether Indian orders had doubled, Ferrari's President of Far and Middle East Francesco Bianchi said: "See, this is big, it's more than what you say". Charles Antoine Geneste, Ferrari's Head of Southeast Asia, said customers walk into dealerships asking whether they can start configuring a car ahead of the FTA. Ferrari normally keeps 18 months between order and delivery, so an order placed now arrives after the tariff change.

Ferrari has expanded its India presence, The Hindu reported. It appointed a country manager for India, Aayush Tiwari, and added personalisation centres in Chennai and Ahmedabad. It ran test drives in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. It also staged its Universo Ferrari exhibition in New Delhi until 1 November, a show it has taken to only five countries including Italy. Bianchi said the previous structure "was not effective enough to really expand the potential of a market like India".

What the draft text offers

The Financial Express reported on the tariff-rate quota, working from the legal text the EU made public. India would allow up to 100,000 internal-combustion and hybrid passenger cars from the EU in the first year at 30-35% duty. The tariff drops to 10% from the fifth year. India charges 66% to 110% on passenger vehicle imports today.

Outlook Business breaks that concession down by price band, citing the draft text. Cars priced between 15,000 and 35,000 euros pay 35% in year one and 10% by year five. Above 35,000 euros, the duty starts from the 66% most-favoured-nation rate, falls to 30% in year one and reaches 10% on the same path. The quota itself grows in steps after the first year. It reaches 130,000 in year five and 160,000 from year ten.

Cars priced below 15,000 euros get no concession. The Financial Express noted this limits the immediate threat to India's largest-volume vehicle categories.

Quotas, not an open door

Outside the quota, the cuts stretch out. Duty on cars priced between 15,000 and 50,000 euros only reaches 35% in year ten, and 30% for cars above 50,000 euros. Within the quota, 43,000 units are reserved for cars above 50,000 euros from year five.

A separate quota covers completely knocked-down kits: 75,000 units a year for the first five years, sliding to 50,000 by year ten. The in-quota duty on those kits falls from 13.75% in year one to 8.25% from year three, compared with the current 16.5%. The Financial Express said the arrangement could push European manufacturers towards local assembly rather than pure imports. Battery-electric and plug-in hybrid concessions start only in year five, and only for cars priced at 20,000 euros or more. Their quota starts at 20,000 units in year five, reaches 50,000 in year ten and 90,000 from year 14.

GTRI founder Ajay Srivastava, quoted by Outlook Business, compared the quota with current imports. India imported 17,191 cars from the EU in 2025, he said, against a first-year quota of 100,000, almost six times current imports.

What happens next

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected in Brussels on 16 December for the signing, The Hindu reported. European authorities say the agreement should come into force in early 2027, once the European Parliament has cleared it. Until then, the figures come from a draft that has been through legal scrubbing, not from a treaty in force.