Mercedes-Benz India aims for record car sales this year

Santosh Iyer, newly appointed Managing Director and Chief Executive, Mercedes-Benz India said that India’s largest luxury carmaker is looking to offer a wide range of luxury electric vehicles along with an exclusive ultra-fast charging network in the domestic market. an interview.

Iyer, who is currently the company’s vice president – sales and marketing, will become the first Indian to hold the top position at Mercedes-Benz India when he assumes his new role in January. He will replace Martin Schwenk who will head Mercedes-Benz in Thailand.

The German automaker expects to cross 15,000 vehicles in annual sales in 2022 as it looks to meet customer deliveries for an order book of over 6,000 vehicles. The company has already retailed over 7,500 vehicles till June.

To be sure, Mercedes-Benz India last sold over 15,000 cars in a year in India, which was the best year ever in the country. This year’s sales will mark a strong growth compared to 11,242 vehicles sold in 2021, when economic activity was hit by a second wave of the pandemic.

“We have over 50% market share in the core segment of luxury cars, and we should be selling over 15,000 cars this year. We are here on our way to have the best year ever for Mercedes-Benz, with the only challenge still looming large over us.”

He claimed that buyers of Mercedes-Benz cars are opting for the top-end model unlike their rivals, who are primarily targeting the entry-level luxury car market with first-time buyers.

“So, our strategies are completely different; Our customer base is different. Our main luxury customer is in 1 crore plus segment, which is now 30% of our total sales,” Iyer said in his first interview after his promotion.

Mercedes-Benz competes with BMW, Audi and Jaguar Land Rover among luxury automakers in the Indian market.

As part of its product introduction plans, Mercedes-Benz has launched the AMG EQS 53, the performance variant of its flagship luxury saloon, the EQS, at dealership prices in India. 2.45 crores. This will be followed by the EQS sedan, which the carmaker will assemble at its manufacturing facility in Pune. The third model will be the EQB, a seven-seat electric sport-utility vehicle. Iyer said the AMG EQS and EQB will be imported as fully built units and there are no plans to locally assemble these models in the near future.

However, India is likely to be the first market outside Germany where the EQS sedan will be locally assembled.

The AMG EQS witnessed double-digit bookings within the first 24 hours since its launch on August 25. The car has been sold till the first quarter of 2023. However, for locally assembled EQS, Iyer expects annual sales in the triple digits.

Mercedes-Benz’s first electric car in India was the EQC, which was launched in 2020 and the company claims that it is the best-selling luxury model in the country.

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