Mercedes Benz India has been operating in India for the last 7 decades, selling luxury cars in the country. The company started importing only the engine and key components while localising its production to an extent over the years.
The company has sold two lakh units over the last thirty years, but over a lakh of those were sold in the past 6 years.
40% of these cars were sold under the leadership of Santhosh Iyer, who took over as the first Indian Chief Executive and Managing Director of the Stuttgart-based automaker.
Of the 51,000 luxury cars sold in India in 2024, Mercedes India had a 40% market share, with sales topping 19,600 units, a first for the German company in its Indian journey.
For Mercedes Benz India, over 90% of its sales comes from ultra-luxury models which are priced over INR 75 lakhs.
Ultra-Luxury cars, priced over INR 1 Cr and which go all the way up to INR 11 Cr contribute over 35% to its sales. So much so, the company has discontinued most of its entry-level models.
The Maybach has sold 500 units in India in 2024, which commands a price tag north of INR 4 Crores!
The company claims that over 1,500 units of Maybach are on Indian roads currently, ever since they started producing them at the Pune factory a decade ago.
The company’s average selling price per vehicle has nearly doubled to INR 96 lakhs, which was INR 50 lakhs a few years ago.
Interestingly, the average age of its customers has come down significantly to 38 years.
Younger and successful individuals decide to own a Mercedes car as a self-reward for themselves, attributing to their and their business’ or corporate success.
Over 15% of the brands are women, a number which has doubled since the Covid-19 period.
Editor’s Note
The Mercedes Benz India saga is a noteworthy case study on the affluent Indian segment of consumers who value luxury purchases as a reflection of their personalities.
The fact that Mercedes India has decided to do away with the entry level models signals there is lesser competition to the other two big German auto companies, Audi and BMW, who have been wooing consumers with products in the INR 40 – 60 lakh bracket.
Hundreds of Audis and Beamers which are over 5-7 years old are now visible extensively on Indian roads, with the second-hand market growing faster for the two brands.
Mercedes has always been a symbol of status and success and the Indian story will be deeply etched in the eponymous history of the 100-year old brand. And the credit for its recent runaway success would be attributed to changing lifestyle preferences of Indians coupled with the leadership of the company’s MD, Santhosh Iyer, who took over in 2023.