The country’s largest luxury car seller Mercedes-Benz India said the diesel cars in its portfolio continue to clock higher sales compared to the petrol ones.

“We have around 70-75 per cent sales coming in from diesel and the rest from petrol...even from the Delhi/ NCR region. It could be possible now that with the A segment, it may have more petrol, but in the larger sedans and SUVs segments, the demand for diesel is still there,” Martin Schwenk, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mercedes-Benz India, told BusinessLine on the sidelines of the A-Class Limousine launch.

After a consistent increase in fuel prices, the passenger car market saw a mixed trend in the last one year from more petrol vehicles than diesel-powered vehicles. For instance, market leader, Maruti Suzuki India which has only petrol cars right now has grown in sales month over month. Second largest passenger vehicles manufacturer Hyundai Motor India has also seen growth in petrol vehicles than the diesel ones.

However, in the luxury car segment, the trend is different and the diesel options still continue to be higher in demand.

A-Class Limousine launch

Meanwhile, Schwenk said the A segment will definitely be a volume driver for Mercedes-Benz in India. The company launched the A-Class Limousine priced between ₹39.90 lakh and ₹56.25 lakh (ex-showroom), on Thursday.

While the A-Class 200 (Petrol) and diesel (200d) are priced at ₹39.90 lakh and ₹40.90 lakh respectively, the sports version - AMG A 35 4 MATIC is priced at ₹56.25 lakh (all ex-showroom).

This is the first time that the ‘AMG 35 series’ is launched for the Indian customers and the company offers an eight-year warranty for the engine and transmission as a standard for the A-Class Limousine.

The company said the A-Class Limousine had already been sold out for April and May deliveries, even before the launch.

“This is also the second AMG model we are locally manufacturing from our production facility (Pune), underlining our growing focus on the AMG brand in India and our long-term commitment to our AMG customers. We want the AMG brand to play an even larger role in our overall product offering in India. With as many as seven new AMGs planned this year, we are strongly placed to maintain our firm leadership in the performance motoring segment in India,” Schwenk added.