Mercedes Benz India Limited (MBIL) sold 15,822 units in 2022, the company’s best performance since it started operations in the country in 1992.

Sales grew 41 per cent from 11,242 units in 2021. The company also assembled the most models in a year at its Chakan plant near Pune, from where it has now rolled out more than 1.5 lakh cars.

The company, which is concentrating on the top-end segment, had 22 per cent of its sales from cars with a sticker price of Rs 1 crore onward. “Sales from this segment grew 69 per cent,” said Santosh Iyer, the new managing director and chief executive officer of MBIL, which is aiming for another double digit growth in 2023.

The company has an order bank of 6,000 cars, said Iyer who parried a questions on when the company would cross the 20,000-sales mark.

“Last year had its challenges like chip shortages, ship shortages and some high demand models such as the GLS and S-Class Maybach which have seven to eight months waiting. Our first priority is to reduce the waiting period to two to three months,” said Iyer.

While the supplies of chips have improved, geo-political factors, the energy crisis and logistics issues continue to plague the company.

Mercedes remains the highest selling luxury brand in the country for the eighth consecutive year with an over 50 per cent market share among the three German luxury car makers.

On whether the company in its focus on top end vehicles (TEV)s might move away from CKD production to more CBUs, Iyer said 90 per cent of its TEVs are assembled locally. A total of 14 vehicles are assembled in Chakan.

The company, which launched its first electric vehicle EQC pre-pandemic in 2019, has three such models in its portfolio, including the EQB and EQS, and has installed over 35 ultra-fast chargers across the country.

The EQB, launched last year with the seven-seater GLB, has a lower on-road price than the GLB in states that waive registration charges for electric vehicles (EVs).

Mercedes, which sold 2,000 cars online last year, is enhancing the digital experience for its customers by offering them facilities such as an app for valet parking and other such services for a fee.

Digital services are also extended to pre-owned vehicles such as an app to find prices.