Mercedes-Benz India Achieves Best-Ever Q2 Sales With 18% Growth

The country's leading luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz India today announced achieving the best ever June, second quarter (Q2), and half-yearly sales in 2017. The Stuttgart-based carmaker sold 3,521 vehicles in India in the April-June 2017 period, registering a total growth of 18 per cent over the 2,975 units sold during the same period last year. Furthermore, the company also had the best-ever June sales with 40 per cent growth achieved over June 2016. This year the company also marked the brand's highest ever half-yearly (H1) sales, which went up by 8.7 per cent with total sales accounting to 7171 units against the 6597 units sold during January-June 2016.

Commenting on these impressive sales achievements Roland Folger, MD & CEO, Mercedes-Benz India said, "Having set the sales momentum in Q1 2017, we are glad to better ourselves with an impressive Q2 sales performance, which grew by a robust 18%. This sales performance further strengthens our customer-centric strategy, which is bearing fruit. We are confident of our leadership in the market by sustaining this growth story in the remaining quarters as well."

The 2017 Mercedes-Benz E-Class now only comes in its long wheelbase guise

Between January and June 2017 the company has launched a total of six new products in the Indian market with an average of one product per month. The year started off with the launch of the Mercedes-Benz A-Class and B-Class Night Editions, followed by the launch of other special edition models like the - 2017 S-Class Connoisseur's Edition and the Mercedes-AMG G63 'Edition 463'. Having said that, the most important launch for the company this year was the new-gen E-Class Long Wheelbase Sedan. While the company kick-off the sales with the E 200 and E 350 d, in early June Mercedes-Benz India completed the new E-Class family with the launch of the entry-level E 220d.

Mercedes-AMG G63 'Edition 463 and GLS 63 were launched in India in June

Talking about the new E-Class Folger said, "The demand for the Long Wheelbase E-Class, in particular, has contributed immensely to our volumes." Last month the carmaker also launched the Mercedes-AMG GLS 63, the performance iteration of the standard issue Mercedes-Benz GLS that is already on sale in the country. As for the luxury SUV space, that carmaker said that there was 31 per cent growth in the January-June 2017 period and the Mercedes-Benz GLC, which was launched in India last year remained the highest selling SUV in Mercedes-Benz's portfolio in H1 2017. Other SUVs in the company's line-up includes the GLE, GLA and the GLS. Early this week Mercedes launched also the 2017 GLA facelift in India.

To see how the competition did, we reached out to both Audi India and BMW India. While our mail to the former remained unanswered, BMW India told us that the company saw about 11.5 per cent growth January-June 2017 period with total sales of 4,589 units against the same month last year. This is over 36 per cent less than what Mercedes did in the same period. In a quote given to us by the company Vikram Pawah, President, BMW Group India said, "BMW Group India will move forward with the 'Power to Lead' and will continuously remain a value-driven, customer-focused organization, with a clear goal to be the best, and set a benchmark in the industry in every aspect, with passion, performance and excellence. Today, BMW Group India is the fastest growing luxury car brand in the country but our primary goal is to grow the size of the luxury car market in India. We believe leading the growth is more important than anything, even more important than being just number one."

In terms of product launches, Audi has had an eventful year so far with launches like - the New-gen Audi A4, the 2017 A3 and the A3 Cabriolet facelifts, as also the Q3 facelift. The Bavarian carmaker on the other hand only launched two models between January and June 2017 - the BMW 330i and M760Li. Although last week the company launched the new-generation 2017 BMW 5 Series in India to rival Mercedes' E-Class. The company's two-wheeler arm - BMW Motorrad, also entered the Indian market this year.