Will Mercedes Benz India follow its global strategy and go all-electric by 2030?

Lance Bennett, VP-Sales & Marketing, Mercedes-Benz India

Mercedes Benz India, which is aiming to derive one-fourth of its sales from electric vehicles (EV), may follow its global strategy of focusing solely on battery-powered cars by 2030.  A senior official of the German carmaker’s Indian arm indicated that there is a strong possibility that its entire portfolio would comprise EVs in the next eight years, if demand skews in favour of such products.

“Our global strategy is to go 100 percent electric by 2030,” said Lance Bennett, VP, Sales and Marketing, Mercedes Benz India, adding, “It won't be surprising if that happens in India as well." However, he clarified that, “It is depends on the market. We have to assess whether India's ready to go 100 percent electric by then.”

According to media reports, Mercedes Benz has said it will commit $47 billion to the electrification of its lineup by 2030.

Last month, Volvo, owned by the Chinese company Geely, had announced that it would sell only electric luxury cars globally by 2030.  Subsequently, its Indian arm had also stated that  it would replicate the global strategy of offering only electric cars by 2030.

Last year, Mercedes Benz had announced that a fourth of its total sales in India would come from the EV segment by 2025. However, this timeline may be pushed back by a couple of years.

“At the moment, we have triple-digit growth in EVs. We expect the share of EVs in total sales to reach double digits before the end of the year. In terms of outlook, we anticipate that within the next four years 25 percent of the vehicles sold will be electric. Mercedes Benz Germany will have the appropriate products if we are ready to go 100 percent Electric by 2030,” added Bennett. At present, EVs account for around 3 per cent of the company's total sales in India.

BMW India recently told Moneycontrol that it expects EVs to comprise 30 percent of its total sales by 2025.

More EQ rollouts on the anvil

The luxury carmaker is also looking at EVs to enhance its product portfolio and add to the existing models — the EQC, EQB, EQS 53 AMG and EQS 580.  There is a buzz that the company is planning to launch four new EVs in India, including the EQS and EQE SUVs, in the next 8-12 months to accelerate its electric mobility drive.

"Our EQB and EQS have been very successful. While the EQB is selling at a slightly higher rate, we have good order banks for both," Bennett added. Quizzed on the upcoming EQ products, he maintained, “In terms of what we've got in the pipeline, I can't quite disclose exactly when, but we will be bringing at least one EQ product before the end of the year.”

As reported in the media, it will launch three new EV architectures for use across its portfolio: the MB.EA for passenger cars, AMG.EA for performance models, and Van.EA for commercial vehicles.

While India became the first market for Mercedes-Benz outside of Germany to locally manufacture the flagship luxury EV, the EQS 580, the company is open to the idea of assembling other EQ models. However, it will continue to source batteries from its parent company. The company will build eight gigafactory battery plants with the aim of scaling its battery cell capacity to 200GWh.

“We evaluate before we bring new products, whether in a CBU (completely built unit) or a CKD (completely knocked down) format. At this stage, we can't disclose what our future plans are in terms of EV assembly. But we will obviously keep evaluating it,” said Bennett.

At present, Mercedes Benz’s plant at Chakan, which has an installed capacity of 20,000 units per annum, assembles the A-Class limousine, the new C-Class, the E-Class long wheelbase, the S-Class, Mercedes Maybach S 580 limousine, the GLA, GLC, GLC Coupé, the GLE and GLS, AMG GLC 43 4MATIC Coupe, the AMG A 35 4MATIC+ saloon, and the AMG GLA 35 4MATIC+ SUV.  The company’s CBU portfolio includes the GLB, EQB, EQC, GLS Maybach, AMG G 63 SUVs, and AMG E 53 Cabriolet.

Business Outlook

Last year, Mercedes-Benz India saw 41 per cent growth with a record sale of 15,822 units compared to 11,242 units sold a year ago. At 15,583 units, its previous-best sales were in 2018. During Q422-23, the company clocked 17 percent growth selling 4,697 units.

It has lined up  10 launches for this calendar year, of which it has already launched the AMG E53 Cabriolet and GT 63 SE Performance. In addition to the new EQ product, and another AMG (variant), it will also be bringing in the latest GLC, which the company claims is its most popular SUV.

“We're very happy with our progress so far and see that we'll close the year with double digit growth.  We had 17 percent growth last quarter and we didn't even have the GLC here. We're pretty confident that when we get that model we will continue to see this momentum. We see growth in the market, which we will capitalise and make sure that we maintain our market share and grow it. The enablers for us are the new products that we have coming on board,” explained Bennett.