Mercedes Benz plans to infuse a fresh investment of 250 crore into its Indian arm to double its production capacity to 20,000 vehicles by the end of this calendar.
The cumulative investment for the Indian market would be raised to 850 crore, he said.
Mercedes Benz plans to assemble the GL Class at its Pune plant September onwards to take the tally of locally made cars to five. Sedans like C-Class, E-Class, S-Class and the ML Class are already made at the plant. The firm plans to add few more models later this year including the A Class hatchback, which would debut in the country later this month. Local assembling helps increase price competitiveness as such vehicles invite lower taxation than those imported.
Mercedes Benz, which once ruled the Indian luxury car market, has been struggling to keep pace with German rivals Audi and BMW in recent years. It sold 7,015 vehicles in India last fiscal year ended March while Audi sold 9,350 vehicles. BMW’s Indian subsidiary has not released any sales figures for the same period. Its latest launch — the GL Class — comes with an aggressive price of 77.5 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). It is powered by a 2,987 cc, V6 diesel engine and would be pitted against BMW’s X6 and Audi’s Q7 in the Indian market. The company said that it has already sold out on the initial quota of 100 units of the launch edition of the GL Class.When the Pune plant starts rolling out the new SUV from September, India would be only the second international market after the the US to locally roll out the GL Class vehicle.
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