‘Electric cars make better sense than hybrids in Indian luxury car market’

German carmaker MercedesBenz on Tuesday said that electric cars make better sense than hybrid ones for the Indian market right now because the charging infrastructure in the country is growing.

“For the Indian market, the better strategy would be to go electric fully as opposed to going for plugin hybrid. However, I have a different view when it comes to other markets in ‘region overseas’ (Africa, Australia, Turkey, etc) because this is a good region to bring in the plugin hybrid...we see this (opportunity for hybrids) in markets where charging infrastructure is almost nonexistent,” Sagree Sardien, Head of Region Overseas, MercedesBenz AG, told a select group of reporters here.

She pointed out that in markets where charging infrastructure was still developing, it made ‘absolute sense’ to give customers a greater level of confidence with a plugin hybrid, but also give them the opportunity to experiment with electrification too.

“In markets that I have committed to electricfication/ setting up charging infrastructure, they are strongly encouraged to take the journey faster towards electric vehicles. Therefore, for India we continue with the battery electric vehicles,” she added.

Talking about the Indian luxury car market, which is limited to around 47,000 units right now (sales in 2023), Sardien said that she hoped that by the close of this decade (2030) the market should reach up to one lakh units a year. It remains a miniscule part of the overall passenger vehicle segment which crossed the 41lakh units mark last year.

“We would hope (to reach the sales target) by the end of this decade, but I think there are some fundamental things that need to happen in the market. It is highly dependent on how customers transition here between the commercial engine and battery electric vehicle architecture and the market itself. And, we need to ensure that the right products are introduced in the market...we have to have the right investment, we have to have right retail format,” she said.

INDIAN MARKET

On the importance of the Indian market, Sardien said that India can become the third biggest market for MercedesBenz in its ‘Region Overseas’ over the next twothree years with demand anticipated to remain strong for luxury products.

The Region Overseas for Mercedes Benz comprises 118 countries, excluding North America, Europe and China. India is the fifth largest market in the region after Japan, South Korea, Australia and Turkey, and the sales gap between India and Turkey is around 8,000 units per year.

We see opportunity for hybrids in markets where charging infrastructure is almost non-existent

SAGREE SARDIEN

Head of Region Overseas, Mercedes-Benz AG