In a conversation with Storyboard18’s Delshad Irani, Santosh Iyer, managing director and CEO of German luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz, spoke of his time as the first Indian managing director and CEO of the carmaker’s domestic arm and where he sees consumers of luxury vehicles going.
It has been eight months for Iyer as the India head, and he talked about the goals he had set when he took over, “The good part of the company being around for 14 years now is continuity for both me and my colleagues. When I got into the role, we had a fantastic team across functions including sales and finance… It was important for us to set a midterm and long-term perspective. India as a market is difficult to predict for a year, looking 3-5 years ahead becomes more challenging,” he said.
He added, “Operationally, our retail network is well set for current numbers and operational challenges. My focus is on developing the brand more so from a luxury brand perspective.”
Iyer highlighted that from the market perspective, there is still room to cover for customer experience regarding what the brand can do differently and how it can set new benchmarks. This year Mercedes-Benz had an impressive 54 percent growth in H1.
The marque’s top-end vehicles in the Rs 1 crore bracket are accelerating growth for the company. Iyer stated, “Worldwide and in India, Mercedes-Benz clearly focused on top-end vehicles and customers as our core strategic pillar as cars are getting electrified and more expensive. As a brand, we are desirable at the top end. Everyone wants to own a Mercedes, but being expensive, we have a big set of followers and customers at the tip of the spectrum who need the latest products.”
Iyer said that the brand wants to further nurture them and continuously launch new cars. This year, Mercedes has launched six new models, of which four are in the upper end of the bracket. “We grew by 17 percent in H1 and saw 54 percent in the top spectrum. We localised the EQS, our electric flagship model, which is around Rs 1.6 crore; that also contributed to the growth,” Iyer said
He discussed the booming luxury market and how the Indian buyer is evolving and taking it to stratospheric heights. “One percent is still the passenger vehicle market. There is a lot of room to grow further. The growth can be manifold. The growth that we see comes from changing demographics, lots of younger customers and women buying luxury cars. A lot of corporate India, at least 15 percent, is getting into the luxury segment,” he pointed out.
There is a great push in infrastructure, thus making luxury cars more desirable. “We see a combination of economic changes and a demographic shift leading to the growth of luxury as a category,” he said.
Watch the full interview on Media Dialogues With Storyboard18 this week.