Mercedes Benz India eyes expanding production line at Chakan plant

Mercedes Benz, the luxury car manufacturer from Germany is trying desperately to storm back in the first slot of the luxury car domain and to fulfill this the company is going to start its 2nd and 3rd manufacturing lines at its plant near Pune Maharashtra. The company is expected to spend a whopping Rs 350 crores to snatch back its number one rank and outpace its arch rival BMW in a time span of the next two years. According to reports assembling of around 4 to 5 models is under processing, localization will prevent the company from paying import duties on fully built cars,hence helping it gaining volumes. Further the company is also considering to bring the modified wheelbase version of the Mercedes Benz C Class and Mercedes Benz E Class sedan in the Indian car market.

 Mercedes is planning to launch two hatchbacks in the Indian car market, one of them is the Mercedes Benz B-Class which will be introduced at the end of 2012 and the other is the Mercedes benz A Class scheduled to be launched in the beginning of 2013. Further two more SUVs are in pipeline for the Indian car market. To add to this, a 5th model a smaller SUV "GLC" is expected to be launched in 2014. As stated by the chairman of the board of directors of the company, Mr. Dieter Zetsche, the company believes that the Indian car market provides  tremendous opportunities for growth and thus the company will be taking all necessary steps to strenthen and expand their grip in India. They plan to do this byi ncreasing the number of dealerships and also increasing the manufacturing capability. Further the Chairman of the Indian board  and global sales, Mr Matthias Luhra stated that the company is aiming to increase the production volume to almost double of its present by producing the A and B class models. They have also prepared a mid term plan specially for the Indian car market.