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Mercedes-Benz India retained its numero uno position in the luxury car space for the seventh year in a row. The German luxury carmaker clocked sales of 11,242 units during 2021, a growth of 42.5 percent over 2020.
The brand with the three-pointed star launched 13 models in 2021 in India including the S-Class, the AMG range and the Maybach GLS 600. The E Class remained one of the best-selling luxury models in India last year.
While the resurgence in sales for Mercedes has been strong, the 2021 numbers are the lowest since 2014 when the company had sold 10,201 units. The company had hit its best annual sales in 2018 when it sold 15,538 units.
Martin Schwenk, Managing Director and CEO, Mercedes Benz India said, “While there were semiconductor and logistics issues during 2021, we grew our market very well. We are looking at a market share of 41 per cent based on our estimates which is a better number than previous years. We have an order bank of 3,000 cars which is the highest ever for us.”
During 2021, the company launched ‘Retail of the Future’, a new way of selling cars directly to the customer. This was a first in the luxury car space in India. Mercedes clocked sales of more than 2,500 fully online during 2021 recording transactions of more than ₹1000 crore.
Double digit CAGR
“We aim for double digit CAGR in next two years. We will leverage our retail model in 2022. We are planning 10 new product launches in 2022 including products under the EQ and Maybach brands. We will locally assemble the EQS. The S-Class Maybach is lined up for launch in March. AMG remains one of our focus areas, we will have additional AMG performance centers across cities,” Schwenk added.
2021 has been a good year for luxury car makers despite challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and issues with regards to semiconductor shortages. Mercedes-Benz rival BMW clocked a growth of 35 percent in 2021 selling 8,236 units excluding 640 units of the Mini range. The last of the three German luxury brands, Audi sold 3293 units in 2021, recording a growth of 101 percent compared to 2020.
Swedish luxury auto brand Volvo also reported a healthy growth last year of 27 per cent on sales of 1,724 units compared to 2020. Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover did not reveal its India sales numbers for the third year in a row.
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