The highly esteemed brand Mercedes Benz has been ranked as the top luxury car manufacturer in India. This company was once the number one but in the recent years it lost its position to BMW and then to Audi. Since then it had been working really hard to grab the no.1 title once again. All the hard work has paid off and this month, Mercedes Benz has become the leader of the luxury car segment in the country. The company worked tirelessly on expanding and upgrading its line up in the country and launched various new cars in almost every segment.
Mercedes Benz has been unable to reach the top spot since the year 2005. In this year it was defeated by its most prominent rival, BMW. Then in the year 2011, BMW was thrown off from the number one spot by Audi. Thus Mercedes Benz fell from the top spot to the third in the past few years. The company launched its CLA model on the 30th of May. These were followed by various other models from A class, B class, E class and the most acclaimed S class.
Managing Director of Mercedes Benz Fund Advisor Gmbh, Thilo Mueller said that “The new models offer Mercedes the opportunity to peel away customers from BMW and Audi to regain lost ground, but Daimler is still acting lethargically compared to the dynamism at Audi and BMW. I wish they’d pick things up a bit”
Mercedes Benz sold a total of 810 units in the month of July 2013 as compared to Audi which sold a total of 705 units in the same month. It is also believed that the sale of 810 units is higher than that achieved by BMW as well. However, if we talk about the period from January 2013 to July 2013, Mercedes Benz sold a total of 4.575 units while Audi sold a total of 5,551 units. The company has confirmed that it will launch a new entry level sedan as well as a compact SUV for its line up in the country. The compact SUV that is being planned will be the GLA which is going to make its first public appearance at the upcoming Frankfurt Motor Show. The entry level sedan most probably will be the CLA. This new sedan will make its way into the Indian market by the end of 2013 while the compact SUV GLA will be coming in the next year.
Talking about this great achievement CEO of Mercedes Benz in India, Mr, Eberhard Kern, said that “2013 is the year of offensive for Mercedes-Benz India as we have unleashed some of our most fascinating products for the Indian market. We are happy that the new E-Class, A-Class, B-Class and GL- Class have been receiving a strong customer traction from all markets and we are working with our headquarters for more allocations of these cars to reduce the waiting period. We have always focused on a profitable and sustainable growth and will continue to do that. At Mercedes-Benz India, we are getting future ready as we are not only launching new segments, but also continuously investing in our production facility in India, strategically expanding our network and also enhancing our cost of ownership programmes. Though the market currently is going through a downturn, we firmly believe that, only fundamentally strong brands like Mercedes-Benz, are able to do better and reverse the trend. We also believe that with these strong fundamentals in place and a focused approach, numbers will only be a natural outcome.”
He also added that “We thank our customers for their trust in the three pointed star, which also makes us shine as the ‘Most Admired Automobile Brand’ in different reputed surveys, in recent times. The product offensive initiated in 2013 is just the beginning of a range of unique initiatives which we together with our dealer partners have started this year, aimed at providing more value to our discerning customers.”
In an interview he told to the Times of India that “We are not surprised by our strong performance. We always maintained that we are sticking to our fundamentals and working towards a profitable and sustainable growth and as the product gaps start getting addressed, numbers will merely be a gradual outcome.”
