The sales of Mercedes-Benz nosedived 43 percent in 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic eroded the luxury car demand, pulling down overall volumes to a multi-year low.
The Pune-based company clocked retail sales of 7,893 units in 2020 as against 13,786 units sold in 2019. This is the lowest total since 2012 when Mercedes-Benz sold 7,138 units.
Last week, rival BMW, India’s second largest luxury car maker, announced that it sold a total of 6,604 units in 2020, including 512 units of Mini. Audi will announce its 2020 sales in the coming days.
The C-Class, E-Class LWB, GLC, GLE and GLS were the top selling models for the company. The E-Class LWB remained the largest-selling model in India for Mercedes-Benz.
“2020 remained an unprecedented year for the industry, and we are glad to make a strong sales recovery for us and our dealers. We are particularly satisfied with the strong Q4 performance registering a 40 percent growth over Q3, and continuing the sales momentum from the preceding quarters," said Martin Schwenk, Managing Director and CEO, Mercedes-Benz India.
Though demand as well as car production in April and May was crippled due to the nation-wide lockdown, Mercedes-Benz went ahead with the launch of 10 products during 2020, including the EQC and the GLC 43 Coupe.
“Demand has picked up very well in the fourth quarter. In fact, we have 1-3 months on certain products. We are sold out the EQC and the new lot will arrive in February and March," added Schwenk. EQC is the company’s first fully electric vehicle.
Mercedes-Benz has lined up a total of 15 launches for 2021, including models that had no predecessors. This is one of the highest number of launches ever done by the German giant in India. These will include the new A-Class limousine, new GLA and AMG GT Black Series. The new launches will commence from April after a 2 to 3 months delay caused by the pandemic, the company said in a statement.
“We remain cautiously optimistic and are confident of continuing the sales momentum gained, despite facing pandemic triggered market upheavals. Mercedes-Benz India is cautiously optimistic and we back it up with 15 new or renewed products and innovations in doing business," added Schwenk.
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