Mercedes-Benz India has laid out its plan for 2022, and has confirmed that it will launch a total of 10 new products in 2022. One of these launches is the all-electric luxury sedan, the EQS and Mercedes has also announced that it will locally assembled in its Chakan plant in Pune. The other launch confirmed for 2022 is the Mercedes-Maybach S-Class. There will be launches from AMG as well – the Mercedes-AMG GT-R is a possibility.
Mercedes-Benz has confirmed that the EQS will launch in India, and has also confirmed that it will be locally assembled in India. Martin Schwenk, MD and CEO, of Mercedes-Benz India has confirmed that we will likely see this happen by Q4 of 2022, but that is subject to delays and disruptions that we are seeing in the world today. The EQS is available in internationally in two variants – the EQS 450+ and the EQS 580 4Matic. The former is RWD sedan with lower performance figures while the latter gets AWD and more performance. It is very likely that the EQS 450+ is what will be launched in India, in the interest of keeping prices as competitive as possible. The EQS, despite being an all-electric car, will be assembled at Mercedes-Benz’s plant in Chakan in Pune. The assembly line will need some reworking to accommodate the new architecture, and personnel will need to be trained as well. By locally assembling the EQS, Mercedes-Benz will become the first luxury carmaker to locally assemble an EV in India.
Another launch that has been confirmed for 2022 is the Mercedes-Maybach S-Class. This will take place sooner rather than later in the year, and is essentially a more luxurious version of the current generation S-Class in India. The Maybach S-Class is available internationally in two variants – the S 580 and the S 680. The former is a V8 and the latter is a V12-powered sedan. Mercedes-Benz India has not confirmed which variant will be launched in India. In the past, both V8 and V12 models were sold in India with the V8 models being assembled here alongside the standard S-Class. More details will be available at the time of launch.
Nothing has been confirmed yet but it is likely that the Mercedes-AMG GT-R Black Series will be officially launched in India in 2022. In addition to this, Mercedes has confirmed that there will be action around the C-Class and that it will focus on entry level products like the A-Class Limousine and the GLA.
2021 was a good year for Mercedes-Benz in India. It cemented its place at the top of the luxury market, claiming a solid 41 per cent market share. It sold a total of 11,242 cars in 2021 — a growth of 42.5 per cent over 2020. A lot of that was down to the fact that it launched a total of 13 products in 2021, while parallel introducing its ‘Retail of the Future strategy'.
Mercedes-Benz India has a roadmap in place to grow even further in 2022. It has called its 2022 strategy ‘You First’ and intends on growing in double digits over the next two years. It already has a current order bank of 3000 vehicles. There are plans to increase the number of AMG Performance Centres where there is a need for them, but the main focus will be on enhancing the overall experience with Mercedes-Benz.