Mercedes Benz India, a subsidiary of the Germany based leading luxury car maker, has said that its sales growth rate is expected to fall to 30 percent in the current calendar year. The firm had registered a massive growth of 80 percent in sales during year 2010. The growth projection has been lowered considering the current market scenario of slowing sales and decreasing demand.
In a recent statement, Director (Sales and Marketing) Mercedes Benz India, Mr. Debashis Mitra said, car sales in India were dismal and hence decline in growth is expected. According to him, the actual sales of the cars have been affected adversely, though there have been a good number of enquires at the company dealerships.
In the January to August period of this year, Mercedes Benz Indian managed to sell 4890 units of its cars in the Indian market as compared to 3495 units sold in the same period last year, accounting for a sales growth of 40 percent.
After leading the Indian luxury car market for quite a time, the German auto giant lost its leadership position to BMW India about two years back. Since then, it has been a neck to neck war between these two German rival firms. Meanwhile, the third largest luxury car maker Audi India is has also been gaining ground in the country, growing at the fastest rate in the luxury car segment. Thus, the coming time will be very tough for Mercedes as after losing top spot to BMW, there are chances that the firm may lose the second spot to Audi, which is aiming to be the largest luxury car maker in the Indian auto market by year 2015.
