Mercedes eyes 20 pc sales from pre-owned biz this year
The company sells its pre-owned cars through the “Mercedes-Benz Certified” channel which are located at all dealers’ locations and are actively selling and trading-in cars.
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NEW DELHI: German luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz is looking at around 20 per cent of its total sales this year to come from pre-owned car sales despite sourcing of used vehicles remaining a challenge, according to a senior company official.
The company’s arm Mercedes-Benz India had sold over 3,000 pre-owned cars last year and is witnessing robust demand for such vehicles with the holding period coming down to around 10 days as compared to 30 to 45 days earlier.
“Still 18 to 20 per cent of our total car sales will come from used cars. So last year, if we did 16,000-odd cars, I will say 3,000 plus cars were used cars, about 20 per cent. Similar ratios will continue, I would say at 20-odd per cent,” said Santosh Iyer, MD-CEO, Mercedes-Benz India, responding to a query on the sales of the company’s pre-owned cars.
The company sells its pre-owned cars through the “Mercedes-Benz Certified” channel which are located at all dealers’ locations and are actively selling and trading-in cars.
The Mercedes-Benz Certified business witnessed steady traction growing by 20 per cent in Q1 2023, owing to growing aspirations and also supported by increased supplies of pre-owned cars, Iyer added.
He, however, said it’s very challenging to grow the contribution of the pre-owned cars to the total sales beyond 20 per cent because of the availability of the vehicles.
On the overall sales growth forecast for 2023, Iyer said, “Our outlook is as committed at the start of the year, we still continue to forecast double digit growth for us for the rest of the year.”
He further said in 2022 the company had record sales and a double digit growth, on top of it “should make this another record year in our history”.
In the first quarter of 2023, Mercedes-Benz India had posted sales of 4,697 units, a 17 per cent growth over the year-ago period. The company posted record sales in 2022 at 15,822 units.
