Mercedes-Benz India To Witness Flat Sales Over Diesel Cars And GST

The company is gearing up to launch four models before December and open three more dealers to increase sales volume. Back in August, the Supreme court ordered lifting the nine-month-old ban on the sales of 2-litre and above diesel models in the National Capital Region (NCR).

The ban was lifted after companies agreed to pay a one-time cess for any new vehicles which is 1 percent green cess on the ex-showroom price to the government.

The company sold 13,502 units in 2015, growth of 32 percent compared to 2014. In 2016 though it could be in the same as the 2016 reflectingflat sales this year.

Mercedes-Benz India said that events like the diesel car ban in Delhi-NCR and GST were now bringing thefactor of uncertainty into their overall planning and they have tried to deal with it the best possible way.

The company plans to get petrol variants across its range of vehicles by this year. In the September quarter, the company sold 3327 units compared to 3420 units in the same month in 2015, witnessing a marginal decline in sales.

The Delhi-NCR market provides 30 percent of volume for Mercedes and this is thereason for the introduction of petrol models across its range of vehicles.

The diesel ban had led to 1.5 percent decline in sales which is of 9,924 from 10,079 units in the first nine months of 2016.

Mercedes had said they would launch 12 new models this year, out of which the company has launched eight and four more are in the pipeline. The company has not elaborated the details of the new models.