Southern states power Mercedes India sales

CHENNAI: With the diesel ban in Delhi skewing luxury vehicle sales in that market, the footprint of the five southern states has suddenly increased given that Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana collectively clock the highest growth in luxury car sales in India.
According to Mercedes Benz, the share of southern markets in its overall sales has gone up from 25% in 2014 to 30% in 2015 and 35%-36% in the first quarter of 2016.
Among the southern markets, Tamil Nadu has been clocking a 30% growth for the brand even as the national growth is a flat 2% in Q1 for the carmaker. Boris Fitz, VP, sales and network development, Mercedes-Benz India, said, “The performance of the southern markets is now on par with the rest of the country and there are some markets which are growing much faster than our national average.” Mercedes Benz sold 622 units in the first quarter at a 2% growth nationally over the last fiscal.

The southern markets however collectively clocked 24% growth in the same period. Among these top-gear markets, Tamil Nadu is one of the fastest growing with a 30% clip in the first quarter. “Chennai now contributes 5% of our national sales and is steadily growing,” he said.
The growth of these markets took off last year when these five markets together clocked 41% growth in 2015 compared to the national average of 32% for Mercedes Benz. The company is reacting to this by focusing more dealer/distribution attention on these markets and spending more marketing money as well.
Mercedes Benz launched its GLC SUV at 56.70 lakh ex-showroom Chennai for the 220d Edition 1 and 56.90 lakh for the GLC 300 Edition 1.
GLC is available in petrol and diesel as it was “originally planned” and the company indicated it has made “necessary corrections” to take into account the shift towards petrol in the luxury car market.