India 2nd country after US to make Mercedes 7-seater

This is not the first EV that Mercedes would be making in India though. It has been making the EQS sedan here for the last 18 months, and has sold 500 units of the car.

German luxury carmaker Mercedes Benz India would now be making its electric SUV, EQS SUV 580, in India, which will be the only market outside the US to produce this seven-seater car as the company sees local demand for electric vehicles.

This is not the first EV that Mercedes would be making in India though. It has been making the EQS sedan here for the last 18 months, and has sold 500 units of the car.

The EQS SUV 580 is currently not available in India.

The car with a 122 kwh battery and 809 km range (in single charge) would be priced at Rs 1.4 crore.

Santosh Iyer, MD and CEO of Mercedes Benz India, said the company felt that having an entire portfolio -- sedan and SUV -- of the EQS range would help boost sales and offer a more holistic option to the customer.

Iyer added that the EQS SUV is the third luxury EV launched by the company this year.

"Mercedes-Benz is deeply committed to the Indian market with an additional investment of Rs 200 crore in 2024 towards manufacturing operations, new product start-ups and digitisation of manufacturing processes.

"The localisation of the EQS SUV manifests our local competencies, creates value for Indian customers and supports the government's vision of 'Make in India'," he added.

This takes Mercedes's cumulative investment in India in manufacturing capacity to Rs 3,000 crore.

The German luxury car maker has six EVs comprising the EQA SUV, EQB SUV, EQE SUV, EQS SUV, EQS 580 sedan and the ultra-luxury Mercedes-Maybach EQS 680 SUV.

Between January and September this year the company has launched the EQA, EQS SUV 580 and the Mercedes-Maybach EQS 680 SUV in India -- all EVs.

The EV sales growth thus stands at 60 per cent in H12024.

In fact, the penetration of EVs has doubled. From 2.5 per cent of overall sales at the end of 2023, it has reached to five per cent in the H12024 calendar.

Mercedes now has 2,000 cars order book in India and hopes to end the year with double digit growth.

As such Mercedes posted its best-ever H1 calendar sales in H12024 delivering 9262 cars between January and June this year. This is a nine per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth.

Around 55 per cent of this comes from SUVs, and 25 per cent from top-end vehicles (those priced above Rs 1 crore).

The Maybach was the fastest growing portfolio in H12024 -- clocking 108 per cent growth.

The company did not share segment-wise breakup of sales.

Luxury carmakers are focusing on bringing in more models that would be made in India.

Earlier in May, British luxury brand, Tata Motors owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) India started making completely knocked down (CKD) units of the "flagship" Range Rover and Range Rover Sport cars outside Solihull in the United Kingdom.

India, thereby, became the first country since 1970 to make the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport cars.

The cars manufactured in India reduced prices by 18-22 per cent, JLR had said.

JLR too plans to launch six new EVs in India by 2030, starting with the Range Rover BEV next year.

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com