Mercede-Benz A-Class to be launched in India soon

Mercedes-Benz, a 100%-owned subsidiary of Daimler AG, is planning to launch a small car named as A-Class, in India soon. The company would position the A-Class as its entry-level car in the country. This will be lower priced in line with competition, said Peter Trettin, president and CEO of Daimler, Central and Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia.

It is expected that this Mercedes-Benz A-Class will cost any where between Rs 16 to Rs 20 lakh. Mercedes-Benz has been registering a good sales growth in India since the December last year. In year 2010, the passenger car segment of the company grew 80%, but Mercedes Benz has grown 157% and this is without the GL launch, said Mr Trettin.

Sales of the company in the central and eastern Europe reason have return to the recovery path, however in commercial segment the company is still struggling with sales fall of about 90 percent. Commenting on the clean-up of existing stokes, Mr Trettin said that the company has to buy back vehicles from its distributors to give them liquidity. Company has also offered ridge finance to its dealers in a bid to support them, as told by Mr Trettin.

Mercedes-Benz India is the second largest luxury car maker in India after BMW India, which is the top car maker in this segment in the country. The Company recently launched new GL-Class in India which is basically a SUV vehicle which will compete with luxury cars in India, like Audi Q7 and BMW X5. The current line-up of Mercedes-Benz in India includes CL-Class, New C-Class, CLS-Class, GL-Class, M-Class, S-Class, SL-Class and SLK-Class.