NEW DELHI:
German automaker Mercedes-Benz plans to take pole position in the Indian luxury electric vehicle market, the country head told Reuters, cementing its title as the best-selling luxury car brand and ahead of rival Tesla.
In India, Mercedes-Benz will launch three new electric cars this year, be the first company to assemble a luxury EV and establish a nationwide fast-charging network, Martin Schwenk said in an interview. The company could also produce batteries domestically in the future, he said.
“Now we are really starting our aggressive offensive in the EV market. In the next five years, 25% of our sales (in India) will be electric,” said Schwenk. “Our ambition is to lead the market in the electrical field as well.”
Mercedes’ rise comes as EV rival Tesla recently put plans to enter India on hold due to high import taxes on EVs.
Mercedes will begin its push in India with an imported electric model of its AMG EQS 53 4MATIC performance car it launched on Wednesday. This will be followed later this year by a locally assembled electric version of its flagship S-Class sedan, the EQS, and an imported electric passenger car.
The AMG EQS has a driving range of 580 kilometers (360 miles) on a single charge and costs about $307,000 (24.5 million rupees).
India is largely a small and cheap car market, with luxury models accounting for 1% of total annual sales of about 3 million. The luxury EV market is even smaller and largely untested.
Mercedes, which already sells its imported EQC sport-utility vehicle (SUV) in India, will be the first to assemble a luxury EV in the country, allowing it to price the car competitively against rivals due to a lower tax rate of 5%. % on locally built EVs versus 100% tax on imported models.
This gives it an edge over Germany’s Audi and BMW, and a clear edge over Tesla.
The 5% tax rate is “a decent incentive” for customers to go electric, Schwenk said.
To minimize range concerns, Mercedes will install 140 EV chargers across the country by the end of the year, including ultra-fast ones that can be charged to 80% in 40 minutes, he said.
The company will also consider producing EV batteries and other components locally if it starts selling “thousands” of a model, though current volumes were too small to justify such an investment, Schwenk said.
“You need a certain scale to be meaningful. I’m not ruling that out for the future, but at this stage it’s not part of the plan,” he said.
Globally, Mercedes plans to invest more than 40 billion euros ($40 billion) in battery EV development by 2030.
Schwenk expects India to align with the company’s plans to move to EVs in terms of speed and product launches.
“We will be in line with the global ambition to move to electrification as we believe we can be just as fast, if not faster than some other markets,” he said.
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