A Look Back At Mercedes Benz Boss, Martin Schwenk’s India Innings

Mercedes-Benz India is at the major of its match, but it has been a steep mountain to climb. It is been the No. 1 luxury carmaker for the earlier 7 many years and none of the other gamers have been capable to continue to keep speed with the company’s advancement in the country. At any time due to the fact 2015, Mercedes-Benz India has been introducing goods that seize the larger sized market share and the system then was to grow to be No.1 in each individual phase and then seize the total sector a approach that was quite perfectly articulated by the then Running Director of the German carmaker, Roland Folger.

By 2018, Mercedes-Benz India’s expansion ongoing and which is when there was a change of guard at the helm. Martin Schwenk, with 26 decades of practical experience in Daimler AG then, took more than the reins to scale the business enterprise to new heights. The challenge, then, was not just to keep in the No.1 situation, but also to make India one particular of the pillars of the company’s world-wide operations.

The firm’s AMG portfolio grew under Schwenk’s leadership

Beneath his leadership the entire fleet was upgraded to BS6 nicely forward of the April 2020 deadline and that was a significant enterprise. But the authentic obstacle was yet to occur. The pandemic wreaked havoc and with numerous lockdowns across the globe, the anxiety on enterprise was immense. Martin with his workforce labored on a system to navigate by means of the pandemic with zero earnings coming in from income. But the business also undertook a variety of CSR pursuits to lend a assisting hand to the culture to triumph over the difficulties posed by the pandemic.

The enterprise until day has introduced 3 electric powered autos and a single electric powered AMG in India

The level of issues went up a notch when the markets opened a minor since the world-wide shortage of semiconductors hit manufacturing in a huge way and once more, ensuing in deliveries currently being delayed to customers. With all these challenges plaguing the firm, it did not put its electrification options on keep. The EQC was launched in 2021, with a promise of a lot more EVs hitting the current market quickly. And by 2022, the flagship EQS and the EQB were being in this article as very well and now the corporation a assorted EV portfolio in the country. In fact, Schwenk, pursued Mercedes-Benz headquarters to provide in additional SUVs to India and the approach has labored due to the fact it’s the only luxurious maker with the highest variety of SUVs in the nation. The range of AMG overall performance autos as well grew and the demand poured in.

Mercedes-Benz India was the to start with CKD market place in which ‘Retail Of The Future’ was launched

Having said that, the major obstacle was pushing by the ‘Retail of the Future’(ROTF) in India. India was the initially CKD and fourth worldwide current market to put into practice the new small business design and receiving the dealers on board was unquestionably complicated but now with the transparency in transaction, ROTF has been thriving, and the daring transfer has paid out off.

The daring steps had been reiterated by Schwenk when he determined to acquire a rickshaw in Pune to access the resort wherever he was to meet the media fraternity. We have often beloved his enthusiasm, attraction and his smile. We at auto&bicycle wish Martin Schwenk all the pretty best in his future endeavours.

Santosh Iyer, will take in excess of from Martin Schwenk as MD, Mercedes-Benz India in Jan 2023

The foreseeable future of Mercedes-Benz India now is in the safe and sound hands of Santosh Iyer, VP Profits and Advertising, who received the EQS steering wheel from Schwenk as he usually takes in excess of the role of Taking care of Director from January 2023.