German luxury car brand Mercedes-Benz is aiming a deeper investment in manufacturing in India. The automaker is gearing up to start assembly of Mercedes-AMG vehicles in its factory in Chakan near Pune. Besides that, Mercedes-Benz now assembles 11 Completely Knocked Down (CKD) models in the Chakan plant.
The Mercedes-AMG vehicles are known as the high-performance models with some design upgrades and more powerful powertrains over the standard variants.
The first Mercedes-AMG model that the luxury car brand will roll out from its Chakan plant is the AMG GLC 43 4MATIC Coupe. With the local assembling, its pricing is likely to be reduced by around 20%. Post local assembling, the pricing of the GLC 43 Coupe could be around Rs 80 lakh (ex-showroom), while the pre-facelift model was launched in India at Rs 74.8 lakh in 2017.
Mercedes India currently has 8 AMG models on offer for the domestic customers, which include 43, 53, 63 and GT series. These Mercedes-AMG models are imported into India as Completely Built Unit (CBU). Hence they draw a hefty amount of import duty, resulting in increased pricing. As the luxury car brand claims, the AMG lineup has registered a 54% YoY growth in sales in CY2019, as compared to CY2018.
According to Mercedes-Benz India’s MD and CEO Martin Schwenk, the decision to locally assemble the Mercedes-AMG models in India underlines the automaker’s road map for the country market. With this local assembling strategy, the Mercedes-AMG vehicles will be more accessible to the Indian customers, as this will save the company from paying a large chunk of import duty for the vehicles.
This strategy could play a bigger role in Mercedes-Benz’s overall growth in the country. Not only that, the decision to locally assemble the Mercedes-AMG vehicles in India will boost the Indian government’s ‘Make-in-India’ initiative.
The Mercedes-AMG brand is synonymous with high-performance motoring globally. The Mercedes-AMG portfolio comprises a range of performance sedans, SUVs, and sports cars as well. The Mercedes-AMG brand has a dedicated retail presence through the AMG Performance Centres located across metro cities in India.
Also Read: Mercedes-AMG GLE 53 Coupe 4Matic+ hits Indian roads, priced at Rs 1.20 crore
