Mercedes has been on a high note this year launching ten models so far, with five more lined up for rest of the year. With its most recent offering, the AMG S 63 sedan powered by a 5.5-litre twin-turbo V8, the German luxury automaker has pushed the number of AMG performance cars in its India portfolio to nine. However, the most powerful AMG V12 engine will not be coming to the Indian shores in the near term.
Talking exclusively to Autocar India, Eberhard Kern, MD and CEO of Mercedes-Benz India said,” We don’t have any concrete plans of bringing the AMG V12 engine as of now. The V8 engine in the S 63 AMG is a fantastic engine and fits perfectly into most of our top-end products. We would like to focus on the S 63 AMG and other AMG performance cars based on the MFA platform, which from our point of view are fit for India.”
Globally, Mercedes offers the mighty 6.0-litre V12 bi-turbo engine putting out nearly 630bhp in the G 65, SL 65 roadster, the S 65 sedan and the S 65 Coupé.
The main reason why the German carmaker is not keen on getting a car with the high-powered engine to India is because it does not see a big enough market right now. Besides, the meager sales of the V12 AMG would not justify the complex service infrastructure as well as the additional after-sales service vital to the car.
India may not have a significant market for such a powerful engine, especially when there is no road infrastructure to fully exploit them, but the growing demand for luxury cars has certainly kept luxury automakers busy this year. Audi and BMW have also adopted a product offensive strategy like Mercedes and are on road to launch 10 and 15 models respectively by the end of 2015.
Mercedes-Benz is now gearing up to launch the AMG C 63 S in India on September 3 and the C 450 AMG later. However, Mercedes has saved the best for last, as its flagship AMG GT sports car will also be making its way into the country later this year.
Dipan Sur
Viraaj Bhatnagar
Uday Singh
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