New Delhi: German luxurious carmaker Mercedes-Benz is contemplating assembling extra electrical automobiles at its plant in India not merely to achieve value benefit but additionally to satisfy its zero emission mobility and carbon impartial setup objectives, based on a senior firm official. Mercedes-Benz India, which at the moment assembles its flagship electrical luxurious sedan EQS at its Chakan unit, is contemplating localisation of different fashions relying on demand. “Our closing objective is zero emission mobility and carbon impartial setup, which not solely means about tailpipe emissions, but additionally from the recyclability of the automobile, to the carbon footprint that we generate by producing these automobiles,” Mercedes-Benz India Managing Director & CEO Santosh Iyer informed PTI.
He additional mentioned,”We’ve to take a look at this holistically and due to this fact producing EVs was the logical step and we’ll proceed in that course because the market demand adjustments.”
Iyer was replying to a question over Mercedes-Benz India’s long-term plans for native meeting of EVs in India.
Mercedes-Benz India had began assembling the EQS from October 2022 on the Chakan plant. It’s the solely mannequin regionally assembled out of the 4 EV fashions — SUVs EQA, EQB and EQE; and sedan EQS — that it at the moment sells in India. These are priced between Rs 66 lakh and Rs 1.6 crore.
Acknowledging the advantages of native meeting, he mentioned,”I believe localisation helps us to carry sure value benefits. As we speak in the event you see an EQS is out there at round Rs 1.5 crore, which in any other case would have been a bit dearer. So that basically helps us.”
In addition to the fee benefit, Iyer mentioned,”It additionally helps us to achieve plenty of data on EVs, as a result of that is a long-term setup. As we speak we’re producing EVs in the identical line as combustion engines. So now we have a really versatile manufacturing plant the place we’re in a position to produce each. All these, I believe are additionally needed to construct our data degree and construct up as we do the transition that now we have said globally in addition to in India.”
Globally, Mercedes-Benz had set a goal to make its complete fleet of recent automobiles web carbon-neutral alongside your entire worth chain and over the automobiles’ entire life cycle by 2039 and its manufacturing vegetation worldwide to run 100% on renewable power with zero CO2 emissions by the identical time.
The corporate additionally goals to scale back CO2 emissions per passenger automobile within the new car fleet as much as 50% alongside all levels of the worth chain by the top of this decade in comparison with 2020 ranges beneath its Ambition 2039 initiative.
When requested if the corporate is open to assembling extra EVs in India, he mentioned,”We’re contemplating I might say however it’s a issue of demand additionally available in the market that we see as a result of to localise you additionally want sure threshold volumes. We’re intently monitoring and we won’t shrink back from any investments if required.”
On whether or not the corporate has recognized a second EV mannequin to be assembled in India, Iyer mentioned”At this stage, I can solely say we’ll proceed to shock the market, as we did with the EQS, with extra localised merchandise sooner or later as properly.”
Mercedes-Benz had reported a 9% development at 9,262 items in gross sales in India within the first half of 2024, its highest ever half yearly gross sales within the nation and its EVs accounted for over 5% of the entire gross sales volumes. EV gross sales grew by 60% in H1 2024 as in comparison with the identical interval final 12 months.
