German automobile giants Porsche and Mercedes-Benz added new entry-level models to their portfolio of luxury cars.
Indians will be able to buy these cars at prices as low as half that of the full-feature cars present in the market.
These models will not have all the features but, as claimed by company executives, they are better suited for Indian roads and driving conditions.
The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG is one of the higher priced models. IndianAutoBlog
This comes as good news to all the Indians who dreamt of owning lavish cars but could not do so because of their whopping prices. Owning a luxury performance car has never been affordable for a majority of the Indians.
In the last six months, Porsche has launched Macan R4, 718 Boxster and 718 Cayman with 2-liter engine option. These are priced 20-23 percent lower than those with 3-liter engines. The lower displacement has implied a cut in import duty from 170 to 120 percent.
Porsche Boxster 718 at an Indian auto show. Autodevot.com
Mercedes-Benz, on the other hand, launched three models — S43AMG, SLC 43AMG and GLE43 AMG, in 2016. These models are available with a 3-liter petrol engine instead of the diesel engine and are priced at half that of the 63AMG series.
Roland Forger, India head of Mercedes-Benz asserts:
Advertisement“A customer of C63 AMG is not able to get the real juice of the car in terms of performance due to challenges on road infrastructure, whereas the C43 AMG is much more practical and delivers a good mix of performance and practicality. The 43 AMG will be a big driver of growth of our performance cars in India.”
The company says that the prices will help attract buyers for performance cars in small towns and cities, too.
Industry experts also feel that these stripped-down models are a practical solution to meet the rising demand of such cars in a country where roads aren’t that good.
A Mercedes-Benz GLE43 ALG at an auto show in the US.ca.motor.1
The main impetus of introducing these entry-level versions is the curb on large diesel-engine vehicles in India.
Companies are expecting a valuable rise in their business with addition of these versions to their already existing range. Supreme Court’s ban on diesel vehicles powered with a more than 2-liter engine was lifted last year but the companies want to play safe and be braced up for such eventualities in future.
