Mercedes-Benz’s India car sales rise 1.4% in 2018

New Delhi: Mercedes Benz India Ltd—country’s largest luxury car manufacturer—on Wednesday announced that its car sales in 2018 increased by 1.4% to 15,538 units compared to the previous year when the company sold 15,330 units. This, however, was the German carmaker’s best annual sales figures in India. 2018 was also the second year in which Mercedes-Benz India achieved the 15,000-sales mark in a calendar year.

2018 was not particularly lucrative for luxury car makers since sales remained largely subdued due to decline in customer sentiment as a result of worsening macroeconomic factors, high indirect taxes levied on such vehicles and increase in import duty on spare parts.

According to Martin Schwenk, managing director and chief executive, Mercedes-Benz India, the company is delighted to have crossed the mark of selling 15,000 cars annually for the second consecutive year which underlines the trust and the loyalty of Mercedes’s customers across markets.

“We are satisfied with our sales performance in 2018 despite facing strong macroeconomic headwinds in the second half, resulting in low consumer sentiment that posed significant sales challenges. We however made a strong comeback in the Q4 period and were able to achieve a year-on-year growth,” said Schwenk.