In the Indian car market, the demand for new vehicles has been sluggish since the beginning of 2013. However, this is not the case for luxury car manufacturers like Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Riding on the back of new model launches, the German triplet has made significant inroads in 2013. Mercedes-Benz, in particular, stepped up the ante as it introduced several new models and their facelift versions. The company had a revival of sorts in India as not only the demand for vehicles surged but the overall market share also rose considerably. According to estimates of Mercedes-Benz, the Indian car market is going to outpace the demand of other emerging regions like China, Brazil and Russia.
As per company officials, Mercedes-Benz is predicting a significant growth in India as it aims to achieve an annual sales mark of 5 million units by 2020. In 2014, the company is planning to drive in CLA and a new Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) and GLA in India. However, the company has not given a clear indication regarding the specific time frame for launching these products.
According to the statistics shown by Mercedes-Benz, it sold 7138 cars in India in 2012 and by 2013; the company is poised to cross the mark of 9000 units. The main catalysts for Mercedes-Benz have been A-Class and B-Class models, which have further helped to increase the market share.
Eberhard Kern, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer for Mercedes-Benz India recently said, “It will clearly end up as the best year Mercedes ever achieved in India.” While Matthias Luehrs, Vice-President, Global Sales, said, “In 2014, we aim to expand in double-digits faster than the market.” Industry experts have already predicted that Mercedes-Benz would come hard at Audi in 2014 banking upon of new model launches that include next generation S-Class.
During 2013, Mercedes-Benz introduced eight new models in which the sales of performance oriented brand, AMG picked up by a fair bit. The German manufacturer is trying hard to shred the old-man image associated with the brand. It is banking upon the Modular Front Architecture platform to woo buyers as it has already helped the company to come at par with its rivals like Audi and BMW. The main thrust for Mercedes-Benz is coming from the emerging markets like India and China which are playing an important part accounting for nearly half of the sales.
Mercedes-Benz is famed for producing high-end vehicles in the country. As a result of this, customers and luxury car aficionados have shown affinity towards this brand as a whole. The auto maker, too, makes every attempt to lure domestic customers with innovations to ensure a superb driving experience in city and highways.
