In India Merc is known for its luxury more than its sports pedigree. The company?s association with F1 in India will play an important role as it repositions itself as a luxury and sports brand. Mercedes-Benz India, which signed up as the automotive partner of the Buddh International Circuit, will be setting up a driving academy in the capital in association with Jaypee Sports International (JPSI), the owners of the circuit. In an interview with FE?s Rajat Guha, Mercedes India CEO Peter Honnegg shares his company?s association with Micahel Schumacher for the forthcoming F1. He also delves into the company?s growth plans including private customer leasing, car launches and F1 driving academy.
What?s the idea behind setting up of driving academy in India?
The academy will be an effort to tap into the popularity of motorsports in this country. It will offer structured training imparted by professional racing drivers. Although it will be difficult to beat the popularity of cricket, I am sure it will attract a lot of people. Driving academy will stress on needs of racing enthusiasts and would attract those who would like to take on motor racing as a sport or for pleasure. Creating awareness about the driving academy would be the first step. India is the third location for a F1 driving academy out of Germany, with China and the US being the other two locales. A few selected candidates will get to train in Germany once they are through with Indian curriculum.
Schumacher is part of the Mercedes GP roster. Does that mean he would also come and train here in the Indian academy?
Most F1 racers are a busy lot, but efforts are being made to get them involved in the driving academy so that future racing enthusiasts are encouraged and well trained. We?ll definitely try and bring them over during the off-season. Schumacher has a huge fan base all around the world and I am sure youngsters will definitely benefit from his experience. We are planning to start off slowly. But within the next couple of years we can have drivers like Schumacher and Nico Rosberg coming down regularly to work with the enthusiasts in the academy.
Mercedes-Benz, the German Luxury carmaker, has announced plans to unveil its compact range of car in India by 2012. What would be its key attributes?
Cars with left hand drive option, manufactured at our facilities in Germany and Hungary, will be introduced in the US and Europe later this year. We plan to bring them to India by 2012-13 as completely knocked down (CKD) units. Mercedes-Benz does not have the facility to build the compact cars at its Chakan plant yet. It currently builds the C-Class, E-Class and S-Class sedans in India. Mercedes-Benz?s compact cars are available in Europe.
How is your finance service arm shaping up in India?
Having sold more than 5,800 cars last year alone, we are making all efforts to go deeper into the luxury passenger car market. And with 75% of Indian customers opting for vehicle finance for purchasing cars, it was just a matter of time that Mercedes-Benz took the support of its very own in-house captive finance unit, Daimler Financial Services, which currently operates in more than 40 countries. We now have all necessary approvals from the RBI for being an NBFC company. We would initially start with dealer financing and private financing of vehicles. The company will eventually start both corporate and individual leasing of Merc cars. Leasing is still to catch up in the Indian market.