Kolkata – Luxury car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz is hoping to capture 30 per cent of the top-end market in India within the next 10 years, a company official said today.
“We are clearly the market leader in the luxury car segment at present. By 2022, we are aiming to capture 30 per cent of the segment,” Debashis Mitra, director (sales and marketing), Mercedes-Benz India told a press conference here.
In India, the luxury car segment is dominated by players like BMW, Mercedes and Audi, with Jaguar being the latest entry.
He said market research studies have revealed that the passenger car market in India would reach 80 lakh by 2022 from the present levels of 25 lakh. As against one per cent of the total cars being in the luxury segment, this would go up to 4 per cent, he said.
“We aim to sell 70,000 to 80,000 cars in India by that time,” Mitra said while launching B-Class premium car in the city.To capture the growing premium segment, Mitra said the company would launch new generation compact cars each year till 2015.
Mitra said that the price point of premium segment of the car was between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 30 lakh, while the luxury segment was above Rs 30 lakh. Others like BMW and Audi have already entered the segment with X1 and Q3 respectively.
Mitra said between 2007 to 2011, the luxury car market grew at a 50 per cent Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR). However, in the first eight months of 2012, the growth was flat, he said.
He said initially, the B-Class cars would be brought in the form of completely built units (CBU) from Raastad plant in Germany and Kecskemet in Hungary.
Mitra said since both the overseas plants were operating at more than full capacity, it was not possible to import in completely knocked down (CKD) condition. The volume of imports of the B-Class was 250 units for this year.
Mitra said the company had already invested around Rs 850 crore at the Pune plant so far. Mercedes-Benz India contributed to 0.5 per cent of the company’s global sales.
Follow this link to join our WhatsApp group: Join Now
Be Part of Quality Journalism |
Quality journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce and despite all the hardships we still do it. Our reporters and editors are working overtime in Kashmir and beyond to cover what you care about, break big stories, and expose injustices that can change lives. Today more people are reading Kashmir Observer than ever, but only a handful are paying while advertising revenues are falling fast. |
| ACT NOW |
| MONTHLY | Rs 100 |  |
| YEARLY | Rs 1000 | |
| LIFETIME | Rs 10000 | |
