German car-maker Mercedes-Benz, which emerged as the leading luxury brand in India after the first quarter 2015 sales figures, is pursuing a growth strategy of unveiling new models, ramping up production capacity and exploring new opportunities.
“Our strategy works pretty well... tailored to make for India,” Mercedes-Benz India Pvt Ltd (MBIL) managing director and CEO Eberhard Kern said, adding that “there clearly [is] a growth perspective in the luxury car market.”
He said this during an interaction at the launch of AMG Performance Centre (APC), at Mahavir Motors, in Hyderabad on Thursday. Only the fourth such centre in the country, it places Hyderabad among 400 cities globally with APCs. The centres are designed to offer exclusive and customised Mercedes-AMG high performance product experience. It is for those “who really enjoy performance cars,” he said, adding that customisation of cars was an option available to such customers.
Though his confidence on growth is not surprising given the mere 1.3 per cent share luxury cars account for in the 2.4 million unit automobile market of the country, the process still will require other support. These, Mr. Kern lists, are better infrastructure, tax harmonisation, ease of doing business, aspects that the government is already addressing. On whether sentiments favour better sales this year, he said interesting products and novelties drive the market. In 2014, luxury car sales in India was 33,000 units, 1,000 more than the previous year.
For MBIL, sales at 3,566 units in the first quarter of 2015 was 40 per cent better. Stating this, he said the company takes the “Make in India’ programme seriously and had doubled the capacity at its plant near Pune to 20,000 units by investing Rs.1,000 crore.
Localisation, Mr. Kern explained, for the customers, meant little compromise on quality. Instead, it brought down the cost and positioned the company better to cater to local demand. Though full utilisation of the new capacity is expected to take time, it made the company “future ready”.
The centres are designed to offer exclusive and customised high performance product experience
