The ride on the crest of fortune is on the top notch with Mercedes in regaining its top slot in C-Class and E-Class. This made BMW to give way for Mercedes as the retail sale of Mercedes during the last four months is 1644 units against 1621 of the same period last year. BMW could secrue more sales than Mercedes only in March and the Stuttgart based global car maker has at last found a sigh of relief from its struggling phase in the last year. The tussle was due to the insufficient vehicle kits for its E-class. This E-class is the bread winner for Mercedes globally and the hit affected the net sale of the company.
Mercedes was firm on retaining its earlier best selling car, to make the way for its new E-class in India. This E-class came to the road in November 2009 at Rs46.89 lakhs followed by the launch of the coupe version for Rs54.83 lakhs. Of these, E-class sedan is domestically assembled at Chakan plant and the coupe version is completely imported unit. The presumptions and assumptions galore over the continued fight between these companies in this year too. BMW is fueling its spirit with the expansion of production at its Chennai facility to have the second shift. The new launches from these two companies are in high esteem and the companies are fully aware of it.
BMW is in full swing to revert back its top spot in another two or three months. The Munich based company is in the process of phasing out its 5-Series executive sedand and replacing it with a new model. This counters Mercedes’ E-class at Rs38.9 lakh- Rs45.9 lakhs. The response for this car has boosted the morale of BMW that it has commenced the delivery to be ready by July. The company hopes that with the tremendous feedback for this new version, the number will be hihger than 4000 this year. BMW foresees the growth of luxury cars to 11000 units in 2010 against 9000 in 2009.
In the period of january- December 2009, BMW mustered a sale of 3614 units while Mercedes could secure a sale of 3247 units. BMW is contented that it could achieve the target of being the number one in luxury car segment one year ahead predicted. BMW is eyeing on the launch of its sport version XI which saw the show case in the Delhi Auto Expo. This SUV is a part of Chennai plant to be assembled at a sale price of R25 lakhs.