Mercedes-Benz India expects 2009 sales to be lower than the previous year largely because of lower availability of credit and also due to the effect of the global economic crisis.

The company sold 2,650 cars between January and October, said Wilfried Aulbur, Managing Director and CEO, Mercedes-Benz India. In 2008, the company had sold 3625 cars. However, there has been a recovery in the sales of cars in the luxury segment, he added.

“In the first half of the year, there was a certain amount of cooling down because of the unavailability of credit,” said Aulbur. He said there has been a change in attitude and confidence is back, and the company should be seeing some good numbers. However, he declined to give a sales projection.

The car-maker has about 300 people in R&D centres in Bangalore and Pune. Aulbur said there would be expansion in this space next year that would lead to some employment generation. But he declined to share further details.

Aulbur was speaking at the launch of the E350 CDI BlueEfficiency model in India, which is powered by a diesel engine. The petrol variant of the same car that had been launched some time ago and the company has sold 130 cars in 45 days.

Taken from Business Line