[ad_1]
The country’s largest luxury car maker, Mercedes-Benz India, on Monday announced the appointment of Santosh Iyer, currently Vice President, Sales & Marketing, as the new MD & CEO from January 2023. Iyer has been associated with Mercedes-Benz since 2009 .various leadership roles spanning sales, marketing, retail, customer service and corporate affairs. Iyer is also the first Indian and the youngest to hold the position since the German-headquartered company started operations here in 1994. He has been instrumental in the company’s sales achievements such as record sales of 7,573 new vehicles in the first half of this year, amid market challenges. In his first interview since the announcement, Iyer shared his thoughts with Business line. samples:
How does it feel to be the first Indian to hold such a position?
This reflects the huge faith and confidence of the staff in the Indian team, which is young, dynamic and diverse. Honestly, it’s a privilege to lead this young team. It also highlights the people-first culture and meritocracy practiced at Mercedes-Benz India. Personally, working with Mercedes-Benz is more than a job and a recognition of my passion for the Star.
What will be your priorities as the new head of Mercedes-Benz India?
I have three clear priorities — to further increase customer loyalty and make Mercedes-Benz the most desirable luxury brand in the country, in luxury products; continue to run a profitable and sustainable business with our fantastic and industry-leading franchise partners; and to further enhance Mercedes-Benz India’s ‘people first’ policies and make the organization diverse and attractive to young employees by promoting meritocracy and potential talent.
As Mercedes Benz India focuses on electric mobility at a time when India is ambitiously planning its clean energy transition, what is your thought process?
Electricity is the future and we have a clear timetable for moving to a climate-neutral product portfolio by the end of this decade. In India, we are accelerating our EV journey with three new EVs in August-December. To support our customers, we will set up India’s largest OEM network for ‘ultra-fast charging network’ which will include 180 kWh ultra-fast chargers in addition to 60kWh and 22 kWh chargers. There’s also an industry-first 10-year battery warranty on the EQS 53 (launched last week). So we’re building the infrastructure and ecosystem to support customers in addition to launching new products.
How do you expect Mercedes’ involvement in Aatmanirbhar Abhiyan and Made in India?
Mercedes-Benz has been manufacturing in India since 1994 and has over 1,50,000 ‘Made in India’ Mercedes on the road. This in itself is a strong testament to our localization efforts and our customers’ faith in our manufacturing prowess has grown over the past 28 years. We are now manufacturing 13 world-class products from the Chakan (Pune) manufacturing facility. With ‘Made in India EQS’, we will now set a new standard in ‘local production’ of luxury electric vehicles and transition to a digitalised and decarbonised future.
On Sunday, the Prime Minister said that electric cars will be a quiet revolution in the future. Your comments.
We believe there will be a “quiet revolution” by the end of this decade. There are predictions that 25 percent of our sales in the next five years will be from luxury EVs, and we are confident that the EV roadmap will be aggressive and the tipping point is closer than expected. Mercedes-Benz India has been leading the luxury car industry for many years now.
How do you see this year’s festival season performing? Will it be another record breaking season?
It is exciting to be at the top of the customer preference list for eight consecutive years and we thank our loyal customers and our franchise partners for this trust. This year we are starting the festival season earlier due to the ongoing semiconductor shortage and delayed deliveries. In order to respect the supply of the customers, we ask them to order their purchases from July itself. We hope that 2022 will be our best year yet.
Published on
August 29, 2022
[ad_2]
Source link