Lance Bennett’s India journey has only been four and a half months but in this short period, he’s been involved in launching AMG GT 63, AMG 45, G400d and now the AMG SL 55. We caught up with Bennett and had a quick chat with him.
Mercedes-Benz India had its best quarter in its history. What are the key factors for this?
We have a very strong product lineup which is backed by really strong marketing. We also have a lot of customer focussed events. All this creates the demand and the momentum which had been our recipe for success for us so far.
Mercedes-Benz has bounced back in some style after the Covid lockdown. Have the customers’ outlook changed and Rs 1 crore has become the new norm in the luxury segment?
We certainly see our customers willing to spend and we are focused on growing the top-end of the vehicle market, including the price range of Rs 1-1.5 crores. Just to give an example, in May, we sold 1,700 top-end vehicles which is around Rs 3,000 crore of the total value we have managed to sell to our customers. We are also seeing a lot of growth in that segment.
Would it be safe to say that Mercedes-Benz’s core focus is on the top-end of the luxury segment like from E-Class and above?
We are always focused on maximizing all of the segments we operate in including entry luxury like A-Class. Yes, we are certainly focused on growing on the top-end level and by the end of the year, 50 per cent of our launches will be in that class.
Mercedes-Benz aims to be carbon neutral by 2039. Could you tell us the roadmap for India? What about the realistic way to achieve this here?
We have now launched three electric vehicles including the EQB and the locally assembled EQS. Currently, electric vehicles constitute around 5 per cent of our sales but we do feel the potential is high and in the next four years we see it increasing to 25 per cent of our sales. I can see that Indian consumers are transitioning to electric cars and we also have good order banks of these vehicles. So we intend to introduce more electric vehicles and even grow that segment.
95% of the Mercedes-Benz portfolio is introduced via the CKD route. What are the plans for localisation content, especially when Tesla has confirmed it will enter the Indian market?
I think competition is good for the market, which, in turn, will be good for the customers. We welcome the competition as we believe it’s good to have more players In the market.
We have to talk about AMGs. It’s the end of an era as AMGs will now go the hybrid way. How have your customers reacted to this step?
The AMG SL55 is an internal combustion-powered engine. However, we did launch the GT63 S E Performance which uses a hybrid system and is developed with the AMG Petronas team, Hence, it is the fastest AMG powertrain We do believe there’s an appetite for such kind of technology from our AMG enthusiasts.
