While the world’s best car goes on sale in India on the 8th of January 2014, Mercedes-Benz is struggling to keep up with the demand of its all new S-Class, a vehicle which makes others in the segment look completely pointless. Not to take away anything from BMW and Audi but the 7-Series and A8 just can’t compete with the fifth generation S-Class, period. Mercedes-Benz has taken a giant leap and pushed the boundaries of engineering with its flagship, yet again. This has directly resulted in demand exceeding supply by a comfortable margin, a rare occurrence in the high-end luxury car space.
Mercedes-Benz’ Sindelfingen assembly plant in Germany will see workers putting in additional hours to help churn out more units of the S-Class. From next year, workers will put in an extra 74 minutes, which is in addition to the extra 30 minutes they started putting in earlier this year. Not to forget, the workers are also putting in the occasional Saturday shifts. The S-Class is a car which has always done well for Mercedes-Benz but the company’s strong overall performance is a result of its complete lineup seeing tremendous demand worldwide.
Not only is Mercedes increasing production of the S-Class, the company is also working hard to churn out more units of the CLA, its entry-level sedan. This has resulted in short supply of the A-Class based saloon and dealers in the States are seeing an influx of bookings. In spite of the global automobile market witnessing a slowdown, Mercedes is able to maintain a steady growth, thanks to the new range of products. For us in India, we don’t have to worry much as 125 units of the new S500 have been allotted for domestic consumption, which should fulfil demand for the first half of next year. The launch edition comes via the CBU route from Germany.
