Mercedes Benz targets Tier II and III cities

The luxury carmaker Mercedes Benz is soon planning to enter Tier II and III towns across India. This announcement has been done by the company after it saw a wonderful sale in India in the month of July.

Wilfried Aulbur, managing director, Mercedes Benz India, commented that a pressure is building in top Indian companies like Infosys, TCS, etc, for a change in their car policies. When senior executives of these companies go abroad, they use luxury cars but not in India. This mindset change along with the demand from Tier II and III towns would be two major drivers for sales in India in the coming years. He added that the company expects 15-30 per cent of its total sales to come from Tier II and III cities. Among the states, with strong demand from smaller towns and cities are Gujarat and Kerala.

A total of 521 cars were sold by Merecedes Benz last month. This was an 80 per cent rise over July 09. The company sold 2,922 cars for the first seven months of this year, that is from January to July 09. This was also an 80 per cent increase over the same period last year when the company had sold 1,670 units. The E Class remains the top selling model of the company with over 210 units sold in July alone.62 units of SUVs, the GL and the M Class were sold by the company in July.

Aulbur said that the company would like to bring in the GLK, a smaller SUV but they do not have right hand drive models. He also said that the focus is on selling SUVs. But he denied to comment on the sales estimates for the full year 2010.

The recent plans of Mercedes Benz include opening up some dealerships in Jaipur, Indore, Bhubaneshwar. The company has already opened dealerships in Surat and Goa. Aulbur said that the company is also considering other smaller cities depending on the purchasing power of people in these cities. Dr Aulbur also commented that soon a permanent second shift will be started at the Chakan plant by year-end.

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