Mercedes Benz is India’s age old luxury maker and Mercedes was the market leader for a long time. However, the company lost its number one position in the segment to BMW when the former sold 3247 units and BMW sold 3619 units in comparison. Mercedes now intends to claim its top spot in the segment and has recently launched two new variants of E-class.
The Mercedes Benz MD and CEO, Wilfred Aulbur dismissed any such reports that Mercedes is lacking in Indian market. He reasoned BMW’s lead only as a “product cycle issue” and nothing more. The company still claims 38 percent market share while BMW owns 40 percent share. The rest is claimed by Audi India. December 2009 already ended with a positive note for Mercedes when the company clocked sales of 334 units in the last month of the year while BMW recorded only 280 units.
Mercedes currently imports CKD units in India for E-class and C-class and assembles them at its Pune plant. This year Mercedes is aiming to achieve a double digit sales growth in India.
