Mercedes surpasses last year sales figure in 9 months

"We have sold 5,700 units during the period January till September against 5,600 units which we sold in entire year of 2010," company’s MD and CEO Peter Honegg told PTI.

"With three months still left in 2011, we aim to sell 7,000 units by end of this year," he said.

With other luxury car brands like BMW giving tough fight, Honegg said that Mercedes Benz would focus on expanding its sales network in smaller and potential cities to deepen its footprint in luxury car space.

"Our strategy to increase our market share will be to open 10-15 outlets every year especially in tier-II and tier III cities which will give push up our sales," he said.

Company expects to have 65 outlets this year and plans to open 10-15 new outlets next year, he said.

Asked about size of luxury car market, Honnegg said the Indian luxury car market is expected to grow between 20-30 per cent this year. He said luxury cars constitute 4.7 per cent of country’s total car business of 2.5 million units per annum.

Asked about its plans to offer cars on lease, Managing Director and CEO said that Mercedes-Benz would launch this business next week while targeting public listed and international companies for this segment.

“We will first go to public listed companies as our dealers are getting demand for cars on lease. Thereafter we will also go for international companies,” he said.

Though Honegg did not put any figure on how many cars the company wants to lease, yet he said Mercedes Benz will be the first company to offer cars on lease in India. The company is currently offering cars in lease in China, US and Europe.

He further said that C, E and S models will be put on lease for corporates.