Mercedes-Benz asserts itself as market leader in India’s luxury car segment

24. March 2022

Mercedes-Benz India, the local subsidiary of the German luxury car maker, has further strengthened its market leadership in the luxury car segment in 2021. With this, Mercedes-Benz has been the market leader in the Indian luxury car segment for the past seven years and owns a comfortable gap in sales figures over its competitors. According to the company’s own figures, it sold a total of 11,242 vehicles, an increase of 42.5 per cent over the previous year and a market share of 41 per cent. Nevertheless, the figures should be treated with caution, as the year 2020 is not considered representative due to the Corona pandemic and relatively low sales figures. Mercedes-Benz sold only 7,893 vehicles in 2020, for example, and not a single vehicle left a dealer in April. In previous years, the average sales figures were close to the 15,000 vehicle mark per year. Cars and their components have to be certified according to the AIS guidelines in India. AIS stands for Automotive Industry Standards, the technical automotive standards for India.

Nevertheless, Mercedes-Benz 2021 managed to position itself ahead of its German rivals BMW and Audi in the Indian market, even though the latter reported good sales figures. BMW reported a 34 per cent year-on-year increase with 8,236 vehicles sold, while Audi reported a 101 per cent increase with 3,293 vehicles sold compared to the particularly difficult year of 2020. Mercedes-Benz India is also very confident about the current year 2022 as they currently have more than 3,000 open orders on the books. Commenting on the highest ever level, Mercedes-Benz India CEO Martin Schwenk said, “This is a clear sign that we are in a healthy market with the Mercedes product portfolio.” Even though the large number of orders suggests high demand, another reason for the long waiting list is the shortage of semiconductors and logistics problems, which, however, also affect other vehicle manufacturers.

There is a certain surprise with the best-selling Mercedes model in India: it is not an entry-level model, but the long-wheelbase version of the E-Class. Other best-sellers were also the SUVs with the Mercedes-Benz GLC in first place. Apart from new models, Mercedes-Benz India also launched a new direct sales model “Retail of the Future” in October 2021, which proved successful with 2,500 orders. Further, 94 dealers and service outlets have been trained in the handling of the new all-electric EQ Series vehicles. According to the company, the Mercedes-Benz production facility in Chakan was equipped with solar cells to generate 3.6 MW of solar power. After the solar panels start operating in January 2022, the plant will now run on 100 per cent green power.
The automotive AIS product certifiation is conducted by authorities like the International Center for Automotive Technology (iCAT).

Depending on the product category, there are different certification steps. We will be happy to advise you on certification in India like AIS and are always available to answer your questions.
Please do not hesitate to contact us for further details and consultation. You can contact us via e-mail, or call us (UK: +44 2071931135, Rest of Europe: +49 69 2713769261, US: +1 773 654-2673).
If you have any questions you can also use our chat-window in the bottom right. (Please check your browser settings if you can’t see the window)
You can also check out our free AIS-Brochure, which can be downloaded right here as a PDF file.