Luxury automotive chief Mercedes-Benz is hopeful of beating its calendar 12 months (CY) 2018 gross sales efficiency this 12 months, Martin Schwenk, MD & CEO, informed FE.
The firm’s greatest annual gross sales got here in CY18 when it had bought 15,538 items. Then the final slowdown occurred, adopted by the pandemic.
“In Q1CY22, we sold 4,022 cars, which was a 26% increase over Q1CY21 sales. In the remaining three quarters of the calendar year, we hope to do even better,” stated Schwenk, including, “Provided there aren’t any major challenges, such as the fourth wave of Covid-19, and the semiconductor shortage eases a bit.”
The carmaker is sitting on an order financial institution of greater than 5,000 automobiles. “As of now, both the chips and ships are down. In addition to that, there is a container shortage and that is negatively impacting the global supply lines,” he stated.
Mercedes-Benz regionally assembles most of its automobiles at its Chakan, Pune plant and even when one half doesn’t arrive on time attributable to container scarcity — it disrupts manufacturing strains.
“We have sold every car available with us, and the waiting period ranges from two months for some models to two years for speciality cars such as the G-Class,” Schwenk stated.
On Tuesday, Mercedes-Benz launched the all-new C-Class in India, priced ex-showroom `55 lakh (C 200 petrol), `56 lakh (C 220d diesel), and `61 lakh (C 300d diesel). It additionally began a finance plan for the C-Class ranging from `60,000 EMI. “Even before the price announcement, we have gotten more than 1,000 confirmed bookings for the C-Class, but the waiting period extends to 2-3 months,” Schwenk stated.
Over the years, the carmaker is getting a brand new class of consumers, i.e; folks benefiting from the start-up increase, and who need to splurge on luxurious items.
The common age of a Mercedes-Benz India buyer is much decrease than in additional mature markets. For instance, the typical age of the S-Class purchaser in India is simply 38 years — the S-Class is an costly automotive, beginning at `1.6 crore, ex-showroom — and the typical age of the C-Class purchaser is 35 years.
“There is a decent size young crowd in India that has the buying power and interest in luxury cars. Because India has a younger customer base, we need to bring in a lot of technology on the dashboard for them, and that technology later percolates down to more affordable cars and indirectly to the mass market segment,” Schwenk stated.
Mercedes-Benz India has noticed that the proportion of individuals shopping for automobiles priced above `1 crore has been growing. In CY18, 40% of the consumers purchased a Mercedes-Benz automotive priced underneath `50 lakh, 48% purchased a automotive priced `50 lakh to `1 crore, and solely 12% purchased a automotive priced from `1 crore upwards.
This has now modified to 24% (shopping for a automotive underneath `50 lakh), 47% (`50 lakh to `1 crore), and 29% (`1 crore and above). “This shows that the luxury car market in India is maturing,” he stated.
Soon, the carmaker will begin native manufacturing of the EQS electrical automotive—its top-of-the-line electrical automotive that has a spread of about 700 km. “Local manufacturing of the EQS is a step in the right direction for us towards mainstreaming luxury Evs,” stated Schwenk.
In CY20, it launched the EQC electrical automotive, as a CBU import.
Source: www.financialexpress.com”