Mercedes-Benz is set to start local manufacturing of its electric sedan (Mercedes EQS) in 2022 as part of a larger effort to electrify its portfolio in Asia. 

Mercedes-Benz India revealed a fantastic Q3FY22 (Oct-Dec) with the best quarterly sales in India's history. It sold a total of 4,101 vehicles, a 99 per cent increase over the same period in 2020.

Mercedes has already sold more cars in 2021 than it did in the entire calendar year of 2020. The automobile giant sold 1,664 vehicles between April and June 2021.

Mercedes India has sold 8,958 cars so far in 2021, representing a 79 per cent increase over the same period last year. The company informed that the A-Class Limousine, GLA, E-Class and AMGs are in high demand. Variants like the GLC, GLE and GLS SUV saw pent, up demands.

Furthermore, the luxury car maker intends to begin selling the locally assembled EQS variant in the Indian market in the fourth quarter of this year, according to Martin Schwenk, company spokesperson.

Mercedes has also stated that they have received a large number of orders for its future all-electric Mercedes-Benz EQC SUV.The car maker began selling imported variants of its EQC electric sport utility vehicle in India from 2020, and Schwenk said the company has been building an EV roadmap for the nation for the past two years, albeit the plans are still in the early stages.

"Now we're transitioning a car from an imported to a locally made vehicle because it has underlying volume and product promise," he explained. “EV sales, particularly luxury electric vehicles, account for a small proportion of overall vehicle sales in India owing to low demand and expensive pricing, as well as a lack of a local supply chain, including battery manufacture.”

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Furthermore, hefty import charges on EVs – India levies 100 per cent import duty on fully built automobiles – are a barrier for businesses. Tesla Inc has been pressuring the Indian government for the past year to reduce EV import charges to as low as 40 per cent.

Schwenk did not say how much Mercedes will invest in its EV push in India but he did say that the firm had invested Rs. 4 billion ($54 million) in the nation over the last two years bringing its total investment to $351 million.

Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, revealed in July 2021 that it aims to invest more than 40 billion euros ($47 billion) on battery EV development by 2030 as it prepares to compete with Tesla.