Luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz is betting big on India’s growing electric vehicle market and expects its electric vehicle portfolio (now and in the future) to account for 25% of its total car sales in the next three years, growing from the current level of 3% to 4%. Mercedes-Benz on Thursday launched its new petrol/diesel SUV GLC in Hyderabad.
Santosh Iyer, managing director and CEO of Mercedes-Benz India, said the automaker plans to launch three to four electric vehicles in India in the next 12 to 18 months.
“For India, we believe there will be rapid adoption of new vehicles upon launch and at this stage we are planning to launch three to four new electric vehicles in the next 12 to 18 months. So we should slowly but surely increase penetration. In the next three years, we think India’s electric vehicle sales will account for 25 per cent of our sales,” Iyer told PTI.
He said it would be easier for Mercedes-Benz car owners to adopt electric vehicles because most of them already have charging facilities at home or in the office and may not rely on public infrastructure.
He hopes some states that still impose road taxes on electric vehicles will grant exemptions to the segment.
He further said that the German carmaker’s plant in Pune is spread over 100 acres and has an annual production capacity of 20,000 units, which can be increased to 40,000 units in the future.
“We are currently investing close to Rs 2,700 crore in the plant. With the GLC (the recently launched model), we have invested another Rs 100 crore. The capacity to produce 20,000 cars in India can go up to 40,000 cars… We should soon see the first phase of 20,000 cars. In the next two to three years, we should reach these numbers,” he said.
In terms of sales figures, Iyer said the premium automaker sold more than 8,500 vehicles in the first half of this year and expects to achieve double-digit growth for the full year.
Iyer said the new petrol/diesel SUV launched today has so far secured more than 1,500 bookings across the country and the waiting period for new bookings is about four months.
