Mercedes Benz India to CKD assemble GLA crossover, CLA and W205 C-Class sedans soon

Mercedes Benz will launch the GLA crossover in India on the 30th of September, 2014. The luxury crossover will be the first affordable car from the Modular Front Architecture (MFA) to be assembled in India, at Mercedes Benz Chakan factory, through the completely knocked down (CKD) kit route. CKD assembly of the GLA will allow Mercedes Benz India to price the crossover competitively, and the GLA will be better equipped to take on the locally assembled Audi Q3 and BMW X1 crossovers.

The next major Mercedes Benz MFA platform car to hit the CKD circuit in India will be the CLA sedan, which will be launched here in early 2015. Both the GLA crossover and the CLA sedan will be sold with turbo petrol and turbo diesel engine options in India. The CLA sedan will be aimed at the Audi A3 sedan, and will sit above the 2015 C-Class luxury sedan, which is also due for an Indian launch in 2015. Notably, Mercedes Benz is mum about its plans of CKD assembling the A-Class and B-Class hatchbacks, which continue to arrive into the country as completely built units (CBU).

The W205 2015 C-Class, which mimics the S-Class in terms of design, will be larger and lighter than the outgoing, W204 3rd generation model. The W205 2015 C-Class uses aluminium extensively to make for major gains in terms of fuel efficiency and performance even though the car uses the same crop of petrol and turbo diesel engines that power the outgoing model. With the impending launch of the 2015 C-Class luxury sedan, Mercedes Benz India dealers have begun clearing stocks of the outgoing model.

Expect the outgoing C-Class to carry large discounts in the coming months. For its part, Mercedes Benz India plans to stop assembling the outgoing, W204 C-Class sedan shortly, in anticipation of the new model. Like the outgoing variant, the W205 2015 C-Class will also be assembled at Chakan through the CKD kit route. Prices of the W205 C-Class luxury sedan are likely to start near the 33 lakh rupee mark. Competitors for the 2015 C-Class include the Audi A4, the BMW 3-Series, the Jaguar XE and Volvo S60 luxury sedans.

Via AutoCarPro