The Indian market has a growing appetite for super luxury chauffeur driven limousines and Mercedes believes that the Maybach fits perfectly into that price bracket.
The luxury car segment is surely on a roll with more and more millionaires taking the plunge towards premium badges in the country. While the Germans and British are certainly enjoying the positive sales in the mass-market luxury space, surge has also been witnessed in the absolutely niche segment of ‘super luxury’ vehicles wherein the owners prefer to exploit the royalty of the rear seat than drive the car themselves. Mercedes is seeing a growing market of niche customers and plans to launch the Maybach brand once again in India in a bid to address the demand.
Earlier part of the Daimler Group, the Maybach brand was launched in India in 2004 with a price tag of Rs. 5 crores (ex-showroom) but was pulled out later due to low demand. However, the company made a re-entry in 2011 in the country, but soon the parent company decided to pull the plug of the luxury brand globally. With Mercedes-Benz having revived the name under its umbrella as a sub-brand, the company wants to address the growing demand of limousines with brands like Rolls-Royce and Bentley being the popular choice at present.
Offered in regular and Pullman versions, the latter is based on an extended new generation S-Class platform. The S-Class Maybach limousine is powered by a 6.0-litre V12 petrol engine that is tuned to produce 530 PS of power and 830 Nm of torque and comes loaded with extremely luxurious features including recliner seats at the rear that is available in two and four seater configurations. Customers will get unlimited choice of customisation options on the Maybach and prices in India can be expected anything between Rs. 6-8 crores (ex-showroom). The German automaker will launch a Maybach version of the Mercedes GLS (GL-Class) in the near future.
