Lance Bennett, vice president of sales and marketing, Mercedes Benz India, said that they will not be discontinuing diesel driven cars as 55% of their business comes from Diesel Vehicles & wealthy customer prefer diesel versions and do not feel hesitation on higher price and maintenance costs.
Audi & Volvo had already given up on their Diesel powered vehicles by removing them from their portfolio.However,Mercedes Benz India is determined to continue with diesel-driven cars.
It is not surprising that other luxury carmakers have already discontinued diesel driven cars as they are considered to be polluting, expensive to run and maintain, and pricier than petrol versions.Popular Carmakers in india like Maruti Suzuki & Honda have already exited from this segment few years back.
“We will continue to sell diesel engines in the foreseeable future and leave the choice up to the customers. We can be flexible with our production and as you have seen, we have launched petrol and diesel variants (of the facelifted GLS). We have diesel throughout the range, whether it is the A Class going up to S Class GLS as well. We will continue with diesel as it is a customer choice,” said Lance Bennett, VP of Sales and Marketing, Mercedes Benz India. “We will leave it up to the customer, we can adjust our product portfolio or production accordingly,” he added.
Mercedes Benz India has already planned 12 new vehicles this year from which 50% of them are top-end vehicles (TEVs), which are priced at Rs 1 crore and above.
In midst of its demanding SUVs like GLC version which was launched a year ago, Mercedes Benz is hoping for a double-digit growth in sales this year.The German company already has an order book of 3,000 units, which it aims to reduce in the near term.
Earlier, Bennett had signaled about chances of Mercedes Benz India shifting its international focus to electric cars if demand drops in favour of such products.