Mercedes-Benz, on Tuesday, introduced its third generation M-Class sports utility vehicle (SUV), promising better fuel efficiency and superior performance.
Priced at Rs.56.90 lakh and Rs.66 lakh, the SUV comes with several new luxury and safety features such as active parking assist, airmatic air suspension, attention assist and eco start-stop. Now in its third generation, the M-Class is the most popular SUV from the stable of German luxury carmaker with over 1,500 units already sold in India.
“At the start of this year we had promised to introduce exciting new models into the market…we are proud to present the New M Class, built to perform with the highest precision and follows our new design language,'' Mercedes-Benz India Managing Director and CEO Peter Honegg told journalists here.
Stating that the company plans to assemble the M-Class SUV in India along with the other models such as B-Class and the A-Class, Mr. Honegg said this move would bring down prices of their cars. “For instance, the M-Class could be cheaper by Rs.9 lakh. In the long run, if any model such as the C-Class, E-Class, A-Class or B-Class were to cross the 10,000 mark a year, we might shift to complete manufacturing of these vehicles, instead of assembling from completely knocked down (CKD) units in India,” he noted.
On the fierce competition that Mercedes-Benz is facing from rivals like BWM and Audi, Mr. Honegg said: “We would focus on profitability than chasing numbers…we would be rather selling 100 or 200 units of profitable models rather than selling 1,000 of low margin models.”
