Mercedes Benz denies losing out to BMW in India

MUMBAI: Close on the heels of the Auto Expo in New Delhi, Mercedes Benz introduced two new engine variants of their premium on Wednesday.

Speaking to TOI, Wilfried Aulbur, MD and CEO of Mercedes-Benz India, dismissed reports that the company was losing out its luxe tag to BMW. BMW India sped ahead to overtake Mercedes Benz India in terms of sales, for the first time ever, during 2009. For the 12-month period ended December, BMW sold 3,619 luxury cars in the country, as compared to the 3,247 luxury units that Mercedes Benz sold.
 
Terming the competitor's lead a "product cycle issue", he said: "We had only limited completely knocked down kits of the E-Class, which sold faster than we thought. We sold 686 kits and the demand was around 1,000 and we sold 1,600 cars of the C-Class," he said. The firm imports the kits and assembles them at its Pune unit. Mercedes Benz is intent on reclaiming the numero uno spot in the Indian luxury car market with sales in excess of 4,000 units this year.
 
Mercedes ended 2009 with 38 per cent of the pie against BMW's 40 per cent with the third German luxury carmaker Audi claiming the rest. In December 2009, Merc raced ahead of the pack with sales of 334 units against 280 units recorded by BMW. Renetly Nissan has launched it new car Nissan 370Z and Ford is going to lauunch Ford Figo.