Mercedes-Benz, a luxury automaker, said that its facility in Chakan, Pune is the company’s first assembly plant for EVs outside of Germany when it introduced its first domestically manufactured electric sedan, the EQS 580, in the nation on Friday.
According to VenkateshKulkarni, Executive Director and Head of Operations for Mercedes-Benz India, “EQS is produced in the company’s mother facility in Sindelfingen, Germany, on a global scale. After Germany, the first assembly base will be in India.
The luxury automaker operates six completely knocked-down (CKD) plants across the globe.
In India, imports of automobiles that are CBUs (Completely Built Units) are subject to a higher tax than those that are CKDs (Completely Knocked Down), which are cars that are manufactured locally.
Mercedes-Benz EQS 580, launched at a starting price of INR 1.55 crore (ex-showroom), is the second electric model in the company’s portfolio and comes to India in a SKD (Semi Knocked Down) kit to be assembled at the Pune plant. With an ARAI-certified range of 857 km, it gets the highest range of any EV on sale in India. However, the WLTP (Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure) real world conditions range stands at 677 km.
