This year marks two major milestones for the local success story of Mercedes-Benz Cars assembly in India. As a pioneer of the luxury regional car market, twenty-five years ago, the local production of Mercedes-Benz Cars started and the business unit Mercedes-Benz India was founded in the same year. The second celebration taking place in 2019 is the ten year anniversary of the independent Mercedes-Benz plant in Pune. “25 years –that’s how long we have been assembling locally in India. To produce, where our customers are located, distinguishes our Mercedes-Benz Cars global production network: A maximum of flexibility, state-of-the-art digital technology and passionate people. As the country’s largest luxury carmaker, both anniversaries celebrated this year are significant landmarks for us, the region of Pune and an important sign for the local luxury car market in India,” states Jörg Burzer, member of the board of management of Mercedes-Benz, production and supply chain management.
Since the local assembly of Mercedes-Benz Cars was set-up in Chakan, Pune and Mercedes-Benz India was established, many milestones have been reached and premiers for the assembly have taken place: One major step was realised ten years ago, when Mercedes-Benz Cars opened its first independent plant in Chakan-Pune. Spread over 100 acres, 730 people work at the plant where ‘Made in India’ Mercedes-Benz passenger cars are built today. The plant plays an important role in the global production network of Mercedes-Benz Cars, its local assembly sets standards in many aspects: The plant incorporates state-of-the-art digital technologies, works highly flexible and efficient and has a people-focussed manufacturing process. Moreover, the plant has a high competence for the local Indian market: As the country’s largest luxury carmaker, from January to September 2019 Mercedes-Benz India maintained its market leadership in the luxury car market in India. “From its humble beginning 25 years back to its current position of strength of being a leading local assembly plant in the global production network, Mercedes-Benz India has successfully established the prowess of local manufacturing in India. Our state-of-art manufacturing facility is the backbone of our growth story in India and serves a very important role within the network, especially for setting up a new local assembly facility or ramp up of series production across geographies. With the advent of new technologies and digitization in the automobile industry in India, Mercedes-Benz has already been pioneering digitisation in vehicle manufacturing and is well poised to become future ready by rapidly adapting such future trends,” commented Piyush Arora, Executive Director, Operations, Mercedes-Benz India.
