Mercedes-Benz India will deepen its engineering and component sourcing in the country, Group Chief Executive Ola Kallenius said, as the new electric GLC sold out within days of its launch. The electric GLC starts at Rs 78.5 lakh ex showroom and has drawn more than 1,000 bookings, taking the order book through March 2027. Kallenius spoke at a media roundtable at the company plant in Chakan, near Pune, during a board visit marking 30 years of the company research and development operations in India.
Mercedes-Benz India bets on local engineering
The research base is the first leg of the Mercedes-Benz India plan. Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India, based in Bengaluru, is the company largest research centre outside Germany. It started 30 years ago as a small team taking tasks from Germany and sending the work back. Indian teams now work across mechanical engineering, electronics, powertrains, software and artificial intelligence, and Kallenius said the company wants what he called R and D global, a full integration with engineering hubs elsewhere.
The supply base is the second leg. Indian component makers have grown more sophisticated, and Mercedes can now use them for more than local content. Kallenius said the company is building strong tech and supply relationships in India, for India and for the rest of the world. Components could be exported from India before any fully built car, he said, adding that the company can export on a component basis before the question of a full vehicle arises.
Electric GLC leads Mercedes-Benz India sales push
The electric GLC is the product at the centre of the Mercedes-Benz India push. The GLC 400 4MATIC, built at Chakan on the MB.EA platform with an 800 volt architecture, has a claimed range of up to 711 km. Local production has begun, and deliveries are scheduled to start in mid November. Managing Director and Chief Executive Santosh Iyer said the company is seeking more assembly kits from its global leadership to raise local production and shorten waiting periods, since demand is running ahead of supply.
The Mercedes-Benz India order book carries an indicative retail value of more than Rs 785 crore including taxes, though that figure depends on final pricing and on the bookings turning into deliveries. Iyer said the model is sold out through March 2027 and that the immediate challenge is availability rather than demand. The company has committed an additional Rs 200 crore to manufacturing operations, new product launches and shopfloor digitisation, taking its cumulative investment in India to Rs 3,200 crore.
What Mercedes-Benz India plans next
Exports of fully built cars remain undecided for Mercedes-Benz India. Kallenius said building cars in India for global markets is a matter of when, not if, but added that no such decision has been made. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had invited the company to use the state for developing technologies and producing vehicles for global markets, including next generation batteries, automotive artificial intelligence, electronics and software. The Chakan plant has handled limited exports before, including a small batch of GLC SUVs sent to the United States in earlier years.
Sales give the Mercedes-Benz India plan a base to build on. Mercedes-Benz India sold 5,422 vehicles between July and September 2026, up 6 per cent on the year and 17 per cent on the previous quarter. Kallenius expects electric vehicles to account for about 20 per cent of the company India sales in 2027, against a high single digit share this year. The electric CLA and the electric GLC widen the electric offer across the core luxury segments, and the company is in the middle of a programme of 40 models over three years covering electric and combustion vehicles.
The Chakan plant will carry much of the work. The 100 acre site assembles more than 11 models from completely knocked down kits and sources engines and axles locally for some vehicles. Recent upgrades include camera based computer vision systems, industrial robotics and artificial intelligence tools for quality control. The company is also introducing an optional public charging package for electric buyers. The next markers are the start of electric GLC deliveries in mid November and the pace at which local output rises to meet the order book.