Mercedes-benz sales on track

Despite the rough market conditions and current slump in the auto industry Mercedes Benz India seems to have a smooth ride recording a sales of 3141 cars in the first 10 months of the current year.

However there has been a slight fall in percentage in the number of financed purchases, financing being an important part of such high priced premium vehicles. Speaking on the sidelines of a Merc Benz brand showcase event in Kolkata, Sanjiv Sahajwala, director, sales & marketing, Mercedes Benz India, said “Sales this year have been good in spite of the current market slump, and the company sold a total of 3141 cars in the first 10 months of this year compared to 2141 cars of the corresponding period last year, which marks a growth of 47 percent “

Last year M-B sold 2491 cars in total. Sahajwala refused to give any futuristic figures for this year saying that the total sales of luxury cars in India as anticipated by the leading players in this segment would cross 6500 units tentatively and M-B expected to dominate the market. He admitted a slowdown in finance purchasing from almost 70 per cent of the total sales earlier to to 58-60 per cent now. In order to push sales despite this, M-B was looking at introducing different measures like service extension.

It extended service warranty period to three years for the S class and E class vehicles.

The company would be investing close to Rs 250 crore on the new 100 acre production facility coming up at Chakan area of Pune which would scale up the production facility from 3000 to 5000 units per annum and could be ramped upto 20000 units in another 5-8 years depending on demand, said Sahajwala.

The new facility would be operational by end of December 2008 or early next year, he said.