Mercedes to look at expanding petrol offering after July

Country's largest luxury car player Mercedes Benz will wait till July before ramping up availability of petrol variants in its vehicles.

Mercedes is the most impacted luxury car maker after the Supreme Court in December last year imposed a ban on sales of diesel cars with an engine capacity of 2,000 cc and above in the National Capital Region. All its models came under this category and impacted the German car maker's sales in its biggest market in the country.

"We are looking at ramping diesel as a per cent of our total volume. This decision we will take after July. By then we hope to get a clarity on the 2,000 cc diesel ban," said Roland Folger, managing director and chief executive officer at Mercedes Benz India. The Supreme Court will continue hearing the petition of car makers to lift the ban in July.

As of now, one out of every five cars sold in the country by the company is a petrol variant. The company's sales in NCR has declined this year after the diesel ban. It has been able to offset the impact to certain extent by diverting petrol models from other markets to NCR.

Folger said the company is losing a window of opportunity with every passing month and therefore a decision needs to be taken on the petrol strategy soon. Executing such a move will take four-six months since the component supply chain will need to be accordingly ramped up.

"With diesel becoming less attractive, more and more buyers are looking at petrol variants," he said.

The company said it does not believe in tweaking the engine size in diesel to bypass the SC ban in NCR. "Hypothetically, if we make all efforts to bring a sub 2,000 cc engine for diesel nothing stops the Court from bringing the criteria down to that level. Moreover, there is no measurable difference in emission level of a 2,000 cc and a 1,990 cc vehicle," said Folger.

Folger said the recent action from National Green Tribunal in Kerala against diesel vehicles of 2,000 cc bothers him but he is happy that the issue is being looked at holistically now and the impact on all stakeholders is being evaluated. The recent NGT ban on sales of diesel vehicle in Kerala was stayed by the state high court.

Folger said keeping away 12,000-14,000 new diesel vehicles from roads will not make a difference to pollution when old polluting vehicles remain on roads. "If the diesel ban continues, we will be having the same discussion next winter," said Folger.

Mercedes today launched its GLC range of SUV in the country in both diesel and petrol variants. Interestingly, it chose to price both at an identical price. The diesel variant has been launched at Rs 50.70 lakh while petrol has been priced at Rs 50.90 lakh (ex showroom, Pune).

Folger said the pricing was done to give customers a real choice without influencing the performance and cost of purchase for the buyer. The company hopes to get an insight into customers' buying preference through this pricing.