The Indian wing of German car maker Mercedes-Benz has asked its parent company to increase the production for its compact cars. With models like A-Class and B-Class gaining popularity, their sales have increased and Mercedes-Benz India is finding it hard to cope up with the robust demand. It is said that the brand with three pointed star is looking ahead to assemble its upcoming models, along with the newly launched A-Class and B-Class, in India and it might announce new plans in next few days regarding the same.
Commenting on the increased demand for its compact cars, Mercedes-Benz India Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Eberhard Kern was quoted as saying, "When we launched the A Class there were doubts if India was ready for such compact luxury cars. Going by our experience, we can say India is ready. Today one out of every four Mercedes-Benz cars sold in India is a compact car."
Mercedes-Benz India had launched two variants in the luxury compact car segment namely A-Class and B-Class in then recent months and due to their stylish designing the car has found a large numbers of buyers. In the recent times, the company told that its model A-Class, which is priced at around Rs. 22 lakh (ex-showroom Mumbai) received 400 bookings within just 10 days of its launch. The other model, B-Class was launched last year in India while its diesel model was recently made inroads in July, mainly contributing to the aggravated demand. On this, Kern was further quoted as saying "Today we have an average waiting period of about two months of the A and B Class cars. We have asked the headquarters for more allocation for these cars for India considering the demand here."
As of now, Mercedes-Benz India does not have any assembling facility for its A-Class and B-Class and currently imports both the models in India from its parent's plant in Germany. When asked about the possibility to setting up an assembling plant for new models, Kern said "We are investing Rs. 250 crore on doubling the Chakan plant capacity to 20,000 units by next year. The idea is to assemble more models here (including the A-Class and B-Class).” While for assembling new models like CLA and GLA in India, he said "Once these are available in the global market, we will be working to bring these models in India.”
It must be ntoed that despite the tough conditions, Mercedes-Benz India has been able to perform well. Throwing light on the company's progress Kern also told that "We have said we will not be in the numbers game and would rather focus on sustainable profitable growth. We have done that and at the same time we have also been able to increase our volumes. Strong brands do well even in the time of downturn and we will continue to focus on it."
