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| Mercedes to launch 6 AMGs this month | |
| BOOM IN THE GLOOM | | Swaraj Baggonkar / Mumbai November 22, 2008, 1:02 IST | |
Despite a slowing car market, German luxury car maker Daimler, which owns the Mercedes badge, will launch six models from the AMG class in India before the end of this month.
The models will carry a price tag of Rs 1.25 crore to Rs 3 crore, the most expensive in the company’s line-up, and will be custom ordered and delivered directly from Germany. Delivery time may take two or three months depending on what the customer chooses.
AMG, which started out developing racing cars, is a division of Mercedes-Benz car company that offers high-performance variants in each of the Mercedes models.
Globally, Mercedes sells about 20 models under the AMG brand including sedans, coupes, wagons, SUVs, roadsters and convertibles.
Explaining the logic of the launch, a senior executive of Mercedes said,” “The premium end of the car market has not been impacted by the economic turmoil and is growing very well. Also, the base is low. Consumers are looking for a larger range of premium cars to choose from and we will only fill that need.”
Although the growth of mass-market and mid-size cars has fallen around 5 per cent, the sale growth of luxury cars, classified as cars available Rs 25 lakh onwards and the super luxury class (above Rs 1 crore) have not declined.
In fact, Germany’s Big three automakers Mercedes, BMW and Audi are all set to surpass last year’s sales to touch double-digit growth this year.
Demand for luxury brands like Lamborghini, Bentley, Rolls Royce and Porsche have proved a sell-out in the Indian market. Rolls Royce has sold its full quota of 16 cars this year, Porsche will double its sales to 200 units and Lamborghini has already sold its quota of 11 cars for the year.
Mercedes, under the Daimler umbrella, currently sells nine models in India, including sedans, coupes, convertibles, sport utility vehicles and multi-purpose vehicles.
Mercedes-Benz India sold 1,936 units for the April-October period, a more than 46 per cent growth compared to 1,322 units sold in April-October 2007.
The car-maker said it also expects its tie-up with ICICI Bank to help customers seeking finance for the AMG car models.
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