Mercedes launches India's first customisation center in Pune

Pune: German luxury car-maker Mercedes Benz today launched its Centre of Excellence here, making India one of the very few markets where the company has such an in-house centre for customisation and experience for its high performance models.

Launching the Centre, Mercedes Benz Vice President for Global Sales Matthias Lurhs said this one of its kind experience for customers will ensure that they live the company’s complete brand experience and are able topersonalise speciality cars to suit their taste and preferences.

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The centre houses the latest high-performance Mercedes’ AMG range of vehicles, including the SLS AMG, SLK 55 and the CLS Class.

The objective of the Centre is to offer customer experience, under which a prospective buyer of an AMG model can customise the interiors and the exteriors, including the colour.

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The customer can even choose to fly down to the centre on a chopper as the company has set up a helipad at its plant here at Chakan. The helipad is one of the few in the world for the German car maker.

Speaking at the launch, Mercedes Benz India Managing Director and Chief Executive Eberhard Kern said: “Our efforts towards creating customer fascination and addressing increasing customer differentiation for the brand has resulted in the creation of many industry best practices and infrastructure. This centre is one of them.”

Stating that 2013 sales could be the best-ever for Mercedes India, Kern said the company has already recorded 33 percent sales growth till November, without disclosing the absolute numbers.

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Commenting on next year’s sales prospects, Lurhs said the company is expecting double-digit growth here.

The company will be launching the S-Class in the first quarter and will decide on new launches including the GLA and CLA Class shortly, he added.

He also said, the company wants to locally manufacture at least 80-90 percent of its models going forward, citing the high duty regime in the country.

PTI