Big B n Big M on a road called India
going by its current acceleration. One-and-a-half years back, the BMW was not even visible in the rear-view mirror of the Mercedes Benz. Now, it has left its fellow German rival spluttering in the slow lane.
BMW zoomed past Mercedes for the first time in India in January 2009 with sales of 270 cars compared to the Merc’s paltry 79. And it has steadily moved ahead, holding on to the top spot selling a total of 2,008 cars until July compared to Mercedes’ 1,606.
The fight between these two German giants in the Indian context is an interesting one. Mercedes is a silent, soft spoken car that immediately conjures up images of old money. BMW, on the other hand, is flashy and makes you sit up and take notice. Right now, it looks like young India likes to rev things up.
However, Dr. Wilfried Aulbur, CEO of Mercedes-Benz, India, is not too worried. A stickler for time, he gets straight to the point, “We are in a situation, where in the E class segment we are looking at a run out of the old model. We have a limited number of old E classes to sell.”
Mercedes hasn’t launched any product since it decided to phase out the old E class. India has not yet fully recovered from the economic slowdown; it was even less so in January 2009 when companies had frozen recruitments and cut salaries across the board. Mercedes could have been forgiven for thinking that this was going to be a slow year. Who would buy a luxury car when jobs were not certain? Merc officials were content to coast along on the back of their 15-year old near-monopoly in the Indian market.
Source:
http://www.business.in.com/article/cross-border/the-german-race/3702/1
