Mercedes-Benz optimistic of trebling sales in India

Bullish on the Indian market, German luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz is optimistic of trebling its sales in the foreseeable future in the country, where it may launch a more models from the 10-11 new vehicles lined up to be added to its global portfolio by 2020.
"In the medium term 5-7 years we see the Indian market perhaps touching 5 million units and we see there is a chance for premium market to grow over proportionally. So doubling maybe tripling volumes in the foreseeable future should be possible in India," Member of the Divisional Board Mercedes -Benz Cars (responsible for Marketing & Sales) Ola Kallenius told PTI on the sidelines of Paris Motor Show here.

He said the company had a record year in 2013 and was looking forward for record year in 2014. The Indian market will be around 2.6 million units this year.
The company sold 9,003 units in 2013 in India. In the January-September period this year it reported 16 per cent increase in its sales at 7,529 units as against sold 6,461 units in the same period last year.
When asked about future product launch programmes in India, he said: "If you look at the world of Mercedes, we have 25-30 individual body style models. By the year 2020 we will add another 10-11 cars to that range. It's not decided yet if every single one of those would come to India but rest assured there is more to come from Mercedes."

Currently, Mercedes-Benz sells a range of vehicles including, compact cars, sedans and sports utility vehicles in India, plans to launch 10 models in 2014, out of which eight have been launched already.

Mercedes-Benz India product portfolio comprises the locally produced S-Class, E-Class, C-Class, GL-Class and the M-Class.
Completely Built Imported cars include the A-Class, CLS-Class, SLK-Class and the luxury tourer B-Class. The product portfolio comprises off-roader G 63 AMG, as well as a wide range of other AMG performance cars like the CLA 45 AMG, C 63 AMG, E 63 AMG, SLK 55 AMG, GL 63 AMG and ML 63 AMG.

The luxury carmaker is in the process of doubling production capacity at its Chakan plant to 20,000 units per annum from the current 10,000 units, at an investment of Rs 250 crore.
"We have invested heavily into our Pune factory and have put in capacities to lay the foundation of this growth. So India, in a different way but with some similarities with Brazil, is another one of those interesting and emerging markets that will be important for our growth strategy going forward," Kallenius said.
When asked if production capacity at Pune could be further enhanced, he said: "We plan the production infrastructure to be obviously a little bit ahead of our sales estimates...We will see how it looks in the next five years time but I see 20,000-30,000 should be very realistically achievable in India in the mid term.