On August 25, Mercedes-Benz India recorded 2,46,000 views on its Twitter handle for the Mercedes-AMG EQS 4 MATIC+ launch live stream. And ever since it stepped in the Indian luxury EV space with the EQC electric SUV, the brand has observed a steady rise in interest around its electric models through its customer engaging activities. Now that is confidence inspiring for the German brand to expediate its plans for launching new electric vehicles in India and considering their local production. It is planning to introduce them as completely knocked down (CKD) products in a bid to keep their ex-showroom prices in check.
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Speaking with Siddharth Vinayak Patankar, Editor-In-Chief, carandbike on the sidelines of the 62nd SIAM Convention Martin Schwenk Managing Director & CEO, Mercedes-Benz India said, “The response that the EQS got shows that the public in ready to be interested in the vehicle and it shows that there is potential in the market. Not everyone of the 2,46,000 viewers on Twitter which we had during our live launch will purchase the car, but it shows that the time is right and it’s ready to move into the electric vehicle space and it gives us a lot of confidence going forward, also with the locally produced car which we’re launching now. The story of EVs is a story of accelerations and deceleration not only in India, but it has also happened globally as well. We think that things will happen in a couple of years, but they happen faster than the original plans were. In that sense I am very confident based on the pipeline Mercedes has built globally. And we’ll also relook on what to do in India based on based on the feedback we’re getting. The EQC gave us good feedback and the EQS is a very strong local product, the EQB which will come later in the year will also see a very different segment. From what we see, what will happened in the next six months will certainly influence our outlook in terms of localisation and in terms of products.”
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The next Mercedes-Benz launch in the Indian EV space will be the locally manufactured EQS electric sedan which will roll out of the Chakan plant on September 30. By the end of this year, the German carmaker will also introduce the EQB electric SUV in our market which is likely to take the CKD route as well. So by 2023 Mercedes will already have four electric offerings in our market across multiple segments. We also know that models like the Vision EQXX and G-Wagon based EQG electric concepts are under development at the Stuttgart headquarters. So if the company continues to observe growing interest in its electric offerings, it is likely that it will consider introducing these models sooner and as locally manufactured products.
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Well, the overall luxury car market is still roughly around 1.8 per cent in India with EVs having an even miniscule share. But according to a Mordor Intelligence study, the Indian luxury car market is expected to reach a value of over $ 1.54 billion from $ 1.06 billion by 2027 with a CAGR of more than 6.4 per cent during the forecast period 2022-2027. The study further states that with majority luxury car brands aggressively balancing their line-up with EV models, the electric segment is likely to dominate the luxury car space which is reassuring.
