20/6/2018
PUNE (NEW
DELHI): Mercede Benz, the world's top luxury carmaker,
plans to manufacture electric cars in India at its factory at Chakan in
Pune. The German auto major, which leads the luxury car market in India, feels
that the country will emerge as one of the key market for electrics in the
coming years, in line with the government's focus on non-combustion
technologies as well as efforts to tackle the rising pollution across top
cities.
"As the Indian market moves towards electrics, we will be
investigating local manufacturing here. As part of our long-term perspective
(on India), we want to manufacture here," Mercedes-Benz India VP (sales
& marketing) Michael Jopp told pune-news.com.
"When it happens, we would certainly manufacture them at our plant in
Chakan, alongside the combustion engine vehicles."
The company - which drove in S63 AMG coupe at Rs 2.55 crore
(ex-showroom, Delhi) - has been taking a closer look at the Indian
government's electric vehicle policy as it firms up its plans for the
segment. Jopp, however, said that there are still "challenges"
that remain to be sorted out before local manufacturing can begin. These
include provision of an "eco-system" from the government's side, that
would include having a robust charging infrastructure to power the electric
vehicles.
Also, the government should have a lenient import duty for the
clean cars before they achieve sufficient volumes to encourage companies invest
in local manufacturing. "For a certain period, the import duty on electric
vehicles should be lowered. This would prompt us to launch them soon at
reasonable prices."
Mercedes, part of the Daimler Group, will start global sales
of a new electric sub-brand 'EQ' from next year and this will see the launch of
a strong line-up of new clean-energy vehicles. Plans to make electric vehicles
in India by a large and sophisticated manufacturer like Daimler will strengthen
the government's efforts to encourage companies to invest in cleaner
technologies.
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