German luxury marque Mercedes-Benz recently announced that they are planning to assemble their flagship electric sedan the EQS in India and now the company has also unfolded their plans to accelerate the sales of luxury electric vehicles in the Indian subcontinent. The announcement made by the senior official of the brand also revealed the objectives of further expansion of the brand’s EV portfolio in the nation.
Mercedes Benz is looking forward to bringing its top of the line electric sedan EQS in India as a locally built unit and the tentative dates for the launch of this EV have been set for the fourth quarter of this year. The EV will be produced at Mercedes-Benz India’s world-class production facility in Chakan near Pune. The EQS will be joining the German automakers EV portfolio which currently consists of the all-electric SUV EQC, which was launched as a CBU unit in October 2020 and was priced at Rs 1.07 crore.
Elaborating on the future of EVs from the brand, Mercedes-Benz India Managing Director & CEO Martin Schwenk in a recent interview said, “We have taken a step by step approach in developing electric vehicle strategy in India. EQC was first available in six markets in India and gradually expanded. Now we are in 50 cities with the EQC and the next step is to expand the portfolio with a car, which we believe has a stronger volume appeal and producing it locally,”
Schwenk also added, “When we did the rollout of the brand EQC we actually looked into what safe numbers we can expect. We do the same in the EQS. At the end, you have to think of which car has a volume aspiration that makes sense for local production.” And he further said, “It is a car with completely different characteristics. It’s a luxury sedan and it has a different customer base and we would also expect a broader base of interest. So the local production makes sense.”
During the interview, the Mercedes-Benz supremo was also asked if the localisation of EQS can translate to a further expansion of the EV portfolio that will be assembled in India. To which Schwenk vocalized that as of now the company is drawing out the plans on one hand while on the other they are observing the current market on how its developing. At present they can see that the market is mature enough for them to bring the locally assembled EQS to India.
He further added, “What we will do on top in future, these are plans that are to be made based on the market conditions, expectations of the customers that are developing…So we will also look into what are the signs in the market…” While adding on to the future expansion of Mercedes-Benz electric vehicles in India, Schwenk said that they will continually have this conversation but will take steps as things become clear in the coming time in the Indian market.
In addition, when the India boss of the brand was asked if they are giving up on their demands of reduction of customs duties for imported vehicles, Schwenk said, “very high import duties limit the localisation of the technology and adoption in the market”. “So, whatever would happen to ease the pain on duties would eventually lead us to have other options in terms of growing the market, and higher demand would be created and we’ll also see other options for localisation,”
Keyword: Mercedes-Benz Looking To Accelerate Luxury Electric Vehicle Sales In India