[TusharK]

Mercedes-Benz has revealed that more than half of its cars sold in India are diesel models. This indicates that the demand for diesel cars remains strong in the premium segment.



Lance Bennett, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Mercedes-Benz India said, “It (diesel) represents roundabout 54 percent of our sales, 6 percent is EVs and the balance is petrol. So it’s still skewed towards diesel but we’re happy to offer each of those powertrains to our customers. We’re seeing that some markets are a bit more receptive towards petrol models due to emission norms.”

Mercedes-Benz India sold 5,412 units in the first quarter of 2024. The carmaker continues to offer diesel engine options in its sedans and SUVs. When it comes to popular models like the E-Class and GLC, sales of diesel variants remain high.

Besides Mercedes, BMW also continues to sell diesel models in India. However, Audi and Volvo have shifted their focus to petrol models and EVs.

Source: Car and Bike

Link to Team-BHP news

[FAIAAA]

Thanks for sharing. However, this is not new news nor a surprise. The Europeans are known for their fun, powerful yet fuel efficient, smooth/ creamy and reliable diesels. And it makes perfect sense for performance cars and SUVs. Turbo petrols may match /exceed performance of turbo diesels but turbo diesels trump when it comes to providing fuel efficiency. No matter how hard I drove my 320d (when I had one), it would never return less than 13-14kmpl and when driven fast but smoothly, it would return 16-20kmpl!
I hope other OEMs rethink their petrol only/mostly strategy.( even in the mass segment, Hyundai /Kia, Mahindra, Tata are showing there is a market for diesels)

[CEF_Beasts]

Part of the reason is also because Mercedes-Benz’s India lineup has always had weaker petrol engines compared to its diesel counterparts and petrol competitors until now.

Few Examples:
E200 (190hp) - E220d (190hp) vs 530i (248hp) vs A6 (241hp)

Prev Gen GLC200 (190hp) - GLC220d (190hp) vs X3 30i (248hp) vs Q5 45 TFSi (241hp)

C200 (1.5L Petrol with EQ boost - 200hp) - C220d (197hp) vs 330Li (252hp) vs A4 40 TFSi (190hp)

A200 (1.3L Petrol - 160hp) - A200d (2.0L Diesel - 150hp) vs 220i (180hp)

GLA200 (1.3L Petrol - 160hp) - GLA220d (2.0L Diesel - 197hp) vs Q3 40 TFSi (190hp) vs the latest downsized ‘23 X1 18i (134hp)

[Maky]

Originally Posted by TusharK

Besides Mercedes, BMW also continues to sell diesel models in India. However, Audi and Volvo have shifted their focus to petrol models and EVs.

Seeing the ongoing, and presumably future, trend of Diesel's still being in strong demand, Would there be any possibility for Audi to once again offer Diesel engines moving forward?
Or is Diesel still a dirty word for Volkswagen.

[avira_tk]

No surprises here, the diesels are better than their petrol alternatives where they exist. The head of the company said that petrol purchases are driven by media hysteria and not any inherent desire for the engines. A new diesel six cylinder suv is the perfect highway cruiser, potholed roads, mud trails and other such hindrance are no problem.

The best part is the range allows you to fuel at a reliable pump, petrol quality is suspect throughout and with ethanol blending, good knows when these engines are going to grenade themselves. DEF is available in every village, so there goes that problem, premium petrol and poor mileage will easily cost a year's worth of def in two full tanks.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by FAIAAA

Thanks for sharing. However, this is not new news nor a surprise. The Europeans are known for their fun, powerful yet fuel efficient, smooth/ creamy and reliable diesels.

IMHO, the German turbo-diesels were superior to their NA petrol counterparts back in the day. But the current breed of turbo-petrols are fantastic too. I would buy a 330i over the 320d. Plus, we still have cars like the M340i, but 6-cylinder diesels <1 crore rupees are becoming a rare breed (530d gone, A6 3.0 TDI long gone).

For big SUVs of course, turbo-diesels will always rein supreme. The trouble with Mercedes is, in many models, the petrol engine option is weak (1.3L & 1.5L in the A-Class & C-Class respectively).

[Kosfactor]

Originally Posted by CEF_Beasts

Part of the reason is also because Mercedes-Benz’s India lineup has always had weaker petrol engines compared to its diesel counterparts and petrol competitors until now.

Say you`re a premium segment buyer , you step into the car, move the lever to drive and just go. When the reserve light shows up fill the tank and repeat.

It would be very annoying for you to fill up more often and pay more money when you do not have to do that in the first place!

There is no advantage in paying more money for petrol or filling up more often - unless we are talking about AMG series perhaps.

Hybrids? could replace diesel if the above use case is met.

[Sid94]

Unless Hybrids bridge the fuel efficiency and low-end torque gap, diesels will sell more.

Also, it is a matter of comfort - one can easily cut down fuel pump stops by half. Diesels offer much better fuel efficiency in both crawling traffic and while doing triple-digit speeds on the highway. For someone who does 2000km or more a month, stopping for fuel every week is too cumbersome. Half of the owners will send their chauffeurs to get their ride filled up in the mornings, but it is the same set of owners to whom the choice of fuel is simply a matter of convenience.

And it is very true, as mentioned above, that petrol line ups have been week. A properly powerful petrol in AMG guise or the like will be exorbitantly priced.

Also, any petrolhead looking for fun would go for a BMW over a Merc in a similar price bracket.

[Axe77]

I think with Mercedes in particular there could be a few reasons for this.

1. There are various products at the entry level where the only petrol / mass market (non AMG) petrol option available is particularly underpowered. A class, C class, and even E class are examples. Heck, even the outgoing GLC was sold in 200 guise for petrol until the current GLC 300 model came in via the facelift. People opt for diesels in such cases to get at least par for course performance. This is not as acute in competitors like BMW where the petrol engines are powered commensurate to their segments and for most part more fun to drive than their 4 cylinder diesel counterparts. For instance every petrol variant of the 3 series is at least powered by a ~250 bhp engine. Not the case with the 1.5 litre equipped C in comparison when it was launched.

2. The GLE at the more premium end of the curve has a MUCH cheaper entry diesel variant with the 6 cylinder diesel and petrol offerings being much more expensive.

All these factors combined would have skewed numbers towards diesel across the overall portfolio.

Other than the top end of luxury SUVs where people still prefer smooth and powerful diesels, most luxury buyers are happy to buy petrol Germans nowadays I feel, unless the running is extraordinarily high. If Mercedes goes toe to toe on their petrol engine specs as their competition, I feel their petrol : diesel sales will move closer towards petrol than is currently the case.

[autobahnjpr]

This explains to a large extent the sales numbers. Competitors who do not have a diesel in their line up are losing at the entry barrier itself.

[LordSharan]

Originally Posted by CEF_Beasts

Part of the reason is also because Mercedes-Benz’s India lineup has always had weaker petrol engines compared to its diesel counterparts and petrol competitors until now.

This is the only reason for merc diesels having higher market share. They simply don't have powerful/good petrol motors. This is where data, if not seen in complete context will lead to false inferences like demand for diesel going strong.

Let's look at competitors:
a. BMW - strong petrol engines across its line up. Every model has an excellent petrol alternative.
b. Audi - is petrol only
c. Volvo - is petrol only
d. Jeep - is petrol only
e. Lexus - is petrol only
f. Porsche - is petrol only (not direct competitors, but SUV's could compete).

[SR-71]

Looks like news outlets are looking at team-bhp to compose auto news . Here is New18 quoting team-bhp...

https://www.news18.com/auto/is-diese...20ICE%20models.

[Sid94]

Originally Posted by LordSharan

This is the only reason for merc diesels having higher market share. They simply don't have powerful/good petrol motors. This is where data, if not seen in complete context will lead to false inferences like demand for diesel going strong.

Let's look at competitors:
a. BMW - strong petrol engines across its line up. Every model has an excellent petrol alternative.
b. Audi - is petrol only
c. Volvo - is petrol only
d. Jeep - is petrol only
e. Lexus - is petrol only
f. Porsche - is petrol only (not direct competitors, but SUV's could compete).

Do not entirely agree that it is a false inference. In the luxury segment, only Merc and BMW have healthy numbers at 1000+ units sold per month. Rest all are still niche brands with sales in few hundred per month. Audi is somewhere in between. It is possible that other brands can do much better if they had diesels in their line up - JLR does reasonably well at 300 or so cars per month. For someone concerned with getting from A to B in comfort, diesel will make sense in India as of now and this is where the big diesels offered by Merc and BMW sell.

[hajaar]

Whoever thinks that BMW offers strong petrol engines, I urge you to look at the X1.