Mercedes-Benz posts its best-ever Q2, H1 sales in India

Mercedes-Benz has announced that it has registered its best ever Q2 and half-yearly sales. The German luxury carmaker has sold 6,659 units in the January-June 2015 period, posting 41% year-on-year growth. This comprises Q1 (January-March 2015) sales of 3,093 units and Q2 (April-June2015) sales of 3,093 units, which are up by 43% (April-June 2014: 2,163 units).

The company had recorded its highest-ever fiscal year sales of 11,213 units in April 2014-March 2015, up 17.5 percent (FY2013-14: 9,548 units), making Mercedes the first luxury carmaker to sell over 11,000 units in a fiscal year.

Mercedes-Benz India says the growth is buoyed by high customer acceptance of its comprehensive stable of vehicles which comprises the New Generation Cars, sedans, SUVs and Mercedes-AMG’s performance cars. SUV sales have notched 100% growth in the first six months of 2015 while the luxury sedans -- the new C-class, E-class, S-class and CLA-class remained key volume contributors and grew by 40%.

Commenting on its 2015 sales, Eberhard Kern, managing director and CEO, Mercedes-Benz India, said, “In the first six months of 2015, we sold almost as many cars as in the entire year of 2012 (7,138 units). We created a strong growth momentum in Q1, taking a clear sales lead, and are glad to sustain this stellar growth story in Q2 as well. We are on track with our long term objective of achieving a sustained profitable growth for our business in India. This performance firmly underlines the acceptance of our customer-focused approach. With some of the most awaited products in the pipeline for the remaining two quarters, including the much-awaited AMG GT, Mercedes-Benz is all set for another year of strong growth.”

For year 2015, Mercedes-Benz India is aggressively pursuing its ’15 for 15’ product strategy. It has already launched six cars in the first six months of 2015 with nine more to follow in the second half. It is also expanding its network – currently numbering 73 outlets in 39 cities – across the country, and plans to open 12 more dealerships between July and December 2015.

The luxury car battle in India
In the battle for the luxury car buyer in India, Mercedes-Benz India has a formidable rival in Audi India, which is also aggressively driving its growth and sales strategy. In FY2014-15, Audi India, which sold 11,292 cars, had pipped Mercedes-Benz India, which sold 11,213 units, by a small margin of 79 cars. BMW, the other player in the German luxury car troika, has not shared its India sales numbers yet.  

The Indian luxury car market, which saw sales of around 33,000 units in FY2014-15, is expected to grow by 7-10 percent in 2015-16. The coming months will see the battle between these luxury car majors further intensify through new models, increased localisation levels which help bring down prices and improved customer interface. Watch this space.