Mercedes-Benz looking to bring CLA, GLA cars to India

Pune, August 26, 2013: With compact cars being the flavour of the season for Mercedes-Benz India Ltd (MBIL), the luxury carmaker plans to pay more attention to the rising demand in this vehicle category.

At a time when carmakers are worried about falling sales, MBIL has made it to the top position in July 2013, selling 810 cars during the month; Audi India sold 705 cars. MBIL has sold 1,756 cars during the second quarter of the calendar year (April-June 2013) against 1,327 units last year, thanks to demand for its A- and B-class cars which have so far sold over 1,000 units. MBIL’s first seven months’ cumulative sales point to a near-22 percent growth in total sales (January-July 2013: 4,575 cars).

Speaking to Autocar Professional on the sidelines of the rollout of the locally produced new GL-class at the Pune plant, Eberhard H Kern, MD and CEO, MBIL, said: “We have had a very successful year so far and are expecting to witness double-digit growth in 2013. We plan to focus on new products and on expanding our dealership network across the country. We have asked our headquarters to allocate us more A- and B-class cars as we are witnessing substantial demand for these models. Further, it won’t be wrong to expect that we may plan to roll out the CLA (compact car) and GLA (compact SUV) in India in the near future.” According to Kern, the SUV category is the fastest growing vertical in the luxury car segment.

Meanwhile, MBIL has begun rolling out the new second-generation GL-class from its Chakan plant. Local assembly has resulted in the GL-class getting a more affordable price tag of Rs 72.58 lakh compared to the launch price of Rs 77.5 lakh. India becomes the first country to locally produce the GL-class after Mercedes’s mother plant in Tuscaloosa, USA.

Without disclosing any details about the additional investments made at the Chakan plant by the company to prepare it for the rollout of the GL-class, company officials revealed that MBIL has earmarked an investment of Rs 250 crore to boost its production capacities. MBIL currently has a network of 58 dealerships across 32 cities and the company plans to add another 10 to the number by the year end.

AMIT PANDAY