Mercedes Benz India, the luxury car market leader is seeing a strong demand for its models signaling a revival in the luxury car segment. “We saw V-shape recovery after the first wave, it’s even stronger this time. Our monthly numbers have now reached the Pre-Covid levels. The order intake is equivalent to FY19,” said Martin Schwenk Managing Director and CEO.
Amid a strong demand pull and supply side constraints that have risen due to the shortage of semiconductors, Mercedes like many other global and Indian carmakers is struggling to align demand with supply. “There is stress in the system. While we did not have to reduce production but had to delay delivery of some models,” said Schwenk pointing out that the company has an order book of close to a month and there is close to two month waiting for some of the models.
The local arm of the German carmaker sold 4,857 units of cars and SUVs in the first half of the year (January to June) of 2021, up 65 percent year-on-year. It sold 2,948 units in the corresponding period last year. Luxury car sales in India, world’s fifth largest auto market, accounts for less than 2 percent of the broader market. The overall volumes have remained at the same level over the past decade. High taxation and duties and various other disruptions has kept the growth in check. Luxury carmakers are now looking to make the most of the revival in the PV market that is being fuelled by a preference for personal mobility.
On Thursday, the company launched its used-car platform called ‘Marketplace’. With this it aims to provide a ‘direct customer to customer’ experience and hopes to provide the ‘best price guarantee’ to both buyers and sellers.
Schwenk said “there is a lot of room to grow in the structured used car business” with used car sales accounting for only 20 per cent of new car sales. The new initiative will help in offering those who are seeking to upgrade to a new Mercedes without the hassle of going through a broker, advertisement, and will remain within the company's purview. With Marketplace he expects the penetration to further increase to 30 per cent.
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