New Delhi:
Luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz, which launched its first locally assembled electric sedan EQS 580 in the country on Friday, said that its plant in Chakan, Pune is the company’s first assembly plant for EVs outside Germany.Venkatesh Kulkarni, ED and Head of Operations, Mercedes-Benz India, said, “Globally, EQS is manufactured at the company’s mother plant in Sindelfingen, Germany. India will be the first assembly base after Germany.”
Globally, the luxury carmaker operates with six completely knocked down units (CKD) plants.
The import of cars as CBU (Completely Built Unit) attract a higher tax in India while for the cars that are assembled in the country as CKD (Completely Knocked Down), their effective import duty is comparatively lower.
Mercedes-Benz EQS 580, launched at a starting price of INR 1.55 crore (ex-showroom), is the second electric model in the company’s portfolio and comes to India in a SKD (Semi Knocked Down) kit to be assembled at the Pune plant. With an ARAI-certified range of 857 km, it gets the highest range of any EV on sale in India. However, the WLTP (Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure) real world conditions range stands at 677 km.
The model, produced at the company’s Sindelfingen plant, is sold out for the year. For the Indian customers too, it will come with a waiting period.
Mercedes Benz Pune plant produces 14 models locally and has a workforce of about 140 people with about 30 experts specialized in the EV transformation journey. However, the parts for the new EQS are yet to be localized.
According to Kulkarni, “The annual investment that goes into the plant is in the range of INR 150 crore-250 crore, based on the number of models. So far, INR 2,600 crore has been invested on it.”
About its expansion, he said, “If the market develops, we have the possibility to expand and even double the capacity, but it will need adequate time and investments.”
With a manufacturing capacity of about 20,000 units, the company plans to produce over 16,000 units in the current calendar year and is sitting on an order bank of 7,000 units.
As of now, the body shop is running in two shifts, and the assembly shop which is running in one shift will go for 2 shifts from October, indicating the demand and the need to increase the production during the festive season.
Mercedes-Benz entered the luxury EV space in India with its EQC SUV as a fully imported vehicle in October 2020 priced at INR 1.07 crore.
“Right now we do not have any plan to locally assemble EQC but further EV models are lined up in the years to come,” the company’s head of operations said.
Last month, the carmaker launched the all-electric performance sedan, Mercedes-AMG EQS 53 4MATIC+, which is imported as a completely built unit (CBU). In the last quarter of this calendar year, the company is scheduled to launch the EQB SUV, which will be its first 7-seater offering for the EV portfolio in India.
The luxury carmaker earlier said that it has invested INR 15 crore together with its franchise partners to build up a charging network of 140 chargers across the country by the end of 2022.
Going forward, the market leader in the luxury car segment aims to have the largest fast charging OEM network in India by the end of the year – over 20 chargers of 180 kW ultra-fast DC and 60 kW fast DC each, in addition to over 100 AC chargers of 22 kW.
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The first eight months of the calendar year 2022 has been a hit for most luxury carmakers. With the festive season around the corner, the market leaders in this segment, Mercedes-Benz and BMW, are expecting to cross their previous peak sales in 2022. However, others like Audi and JLR, though out of the COVID blues, are still below their best-ever performances. Industry experts believe if the demand momentum continues to be strong; the luxury car segment will hit the cumulative peak in the years to follow, though not in 2022.
The German auto major noted that it would continue ongoing efforts to increase road safety awareness as a responsible manufacturer while equipping its vehicles with the latest safety features and technologies.
