“The only challenge is to produce the cars due to various uncertainties such as parts shortages and logistics issues.”
“The only challenge is to produce the cars due to various uncertainties such as parts shortages and logistics issues.”
German luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz expects 2022 to be its best year ever in India, beating the previous best of 15,500 cars in 2018, driven by strong demand and a raft of new products to be launched in the current year, a said senior company representative.
“What makes me optimistic is that, on the one hand, I see extremely strong demand. We sold over 4,000 units in the first quarter and have an order book of around 5,000 cars,” said Martin Schwenk, Managing Director & CEO, Mercedes-Benz India Peppystores. “This is mainly due to two reasons, viz. On the one hand we have extremely strong products and very new products, on the other hand there is a positive business climate. Many of our customers come from business.”
He added that the only challenge is producing the cars due to various uncertainties such as parts shortages and logistics issues. “We now have a strong connection between sales, production and logistics functions in our company, which allows us to contain the problems to a certain extent, but they are there … and they will even affect us for the next three to six.” Months accompany longer.
“I think we’re going to have to live with that, but still healthy demand, strong products and hopefully capable management to handle the shortage… we should be able to get there,” he said.
The luxury automaker, which unveiled the new generation C-Class in India on Tuesday, priced at between 55 lakh and 61 lakh (ex-showroom), currently has a wait of two to eight months, depending on the model.
“The C-Class is a very strong product. The E-Class is our most powerful sedan, but the C-Class is the second largest in our sedan portfolio. Approximately 48% of C-Class buyers are entering the luxury car segment for the first time, so this is important to us,” added Mr. Schwenk.
Asked if the increased level of localization will help with bottlenecks and logistics issues, he said that Mercedes Benz builds very complex cars and it is not possible to have such a high level of localization that the company would be protected from uncertainty, especially at these volumes . “If only we had very high volumes and specific Indian products… but that’s not the case. The components come from all over the world. Decoupling from the supply is technically not feasible.”
He added that while this year may be the best for Mercedes, it may not be the case for the overall luxury market. “We think it might be a few more months before the luxury market itself returns and it wouldn’t fully happen this year, but at the same time we expect the luxury market to have higher growth rates over the next few years than we’re predicting.” overall car market, but it will not explode… the change in consumer behavior will continue, but these trends will also take years to develop.”
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