October 7, 2013: Mercedes-Benz India has announced a 58 percent year-on-year growth for July-September 2013, selling 2,696 units (July-September 2012: 1,703 units). In calendar year 2013, the carmaker has registered 31 percent growth in the first nine months of 2013 compared to the same period last year, selling 6,461 units (January-September 2012: 4,938 units). Mercedes claims that cars like the G 63 AMG, GL-class, A-class, B-class, E-class and the recently launched E 63 AMG have helped achieve its sales growth.

Commenting on the sales performance, Eberhard Kern, managing director and CEO, Mercedes-Benz India, said: “Fundamentally strong brands like Mercedes-Benz perform robustly amidst challenging market conditions. Our ‘Year of Offensive’ strategy has yielded satisfactory results as we continue to improve our strong performance with each quarter, amidst one of the toughest market situations faced by the industry. Our fascinating product range, qualitative network expansion coupled with industry best cost of ownership programmes helped us achieve significant customer confidence. We are confident of maintaining this positive momentum for the remaining quarter and achieve our targeted growth for 2013.”

In comparison, arch rival Audi has sold 2,545 units in the July- September 2013 period, which is 151 units below Mercedes’ tally but its nine-month January-September 2013 sales eclipse its rival’s, with 7,391 units (as against Mercedes’ 6,461 units).

In 2012-13, Audi was the No. 1 luxury carmaker in the terms of sales with a total of 9,350 units compared to BMW India’s 8,471 and Mercedes-Benz India’s 7,015.