50 PER CENT OF WHAT WE LAUNCH THIS YEAR WILL BE AMGS

Talking to Mercedes-Benz India’s VP of sales and marketing Santosh Iyer on AMG’s plans for 2021

- SIRISH CHANDRAN

OUT OF 15 NEW PRODUCTS, SEVEN WILL BE AMGs

“We've started with the A 35 which you can see here. Seven new AMGs are lined up for this year, right from the GT top-end 63s to the 43 and then the 35. You know about Black Series too. The mixture of localisation with CBU imports with the right strategy should help us gain the best out of this segment.”

We will offer the AMGs along with the series cars wherever it is possible and also localise it as much as possible

“Localisation is an on-going effort. One of the key starting points to localise is volume. We put our bets on the GLC 43 AMG to start with. There was some delay because we were assembling an AMG for the first time and we were trying to get it certified and then give it to the market. That is behind us now. With the A-Class, we are doing the start-up together. That's why the A 35 will come along with the series cars. There is no delay and that is going to be our strategy.”

When we are localising, we want to reduce the complexities

“If you want to add a different bodystyle [like the A-Class hatchback], there are costs involved in certification and other such things. Right now we would like to go with less complexities. So the A 35 locally produced Limousine is what we will look at.”

One of the major costs are the import duties

“With local assembly we are able to import kits at between 15-20 per cent and then there is the cost of production and then the 48 per cent GST that applies to any car. When it is a CBU, it is close to 110 per cent duties.