[audioholic]

I think Ola Kallenius clearly mentioned sometime earlier that Mercedes-Benz is a luxury car maker and will continue to be one. The focus will be to give better luxury, tech and EVs, increasing profitability on the cars rather than going the mass market way and target higher volumes and thinner margins. While sub variants of the A and B are a possibility, dont expect any drastic reduction in entry level prices that they are portrayed to be as.

[DicKy]

Originally Posted by Eshan Joshi

But my only concern is about the Smart car brand owned by Mercedes. I thought that it was their job to make and sell small cars. What will happen to them? Will they be shut down?

Originally Posted by Sahil

Even the Smart brand never picked up.
In my opinion MB should focus on the existing range and it's transition to EV etc. Perhaps they can use Smart as a sub brand to go down the value chain.

Maybe because Smart is going to be a JV between Merc and Geely from 2022 onwards with their range being pure EV city cars and made in China.

Though contradicting Merc's earlier statement that they wouldn't go down-market anymore, guess they want a slice of the city car segment or maybe help with their CAFE, fleet carbon emissions (?).

[carthick1000]

I think Mercedes is in a dilemma. On the one hand, they say they don't want to focus on volume markets and on the other hand, news like this come up.

Last October, this news came in: https://www.am-online.com/news/car-m...h-new-strategy

Atleast it is clear for me now to steer clear of Mercedes-Benz in the future.

[ads11]

These two proposed models are entirely aimed for the European market - no way they bring a 3 door hatchback to India, so fret not in that regard folks.

That being said, it sounds like they want to have something in the Fiesta/Clio/Corsa size class with this A-City.

Originally Posted by GTO

Reminds me of attempts like the Audi A3

Actual my immediate thought when I read this was of the Audi A1 sold here in Europe. It's a small old thing, at the bottom of the Audi ladder. Something that makes no sense when you can get the same vehicle much cheaper from one of the other VW group brands.

Originally Posted by Eshan Joshi

They could honestly get a few of the Fiat 500 customers. Fiat sells a ton of them in Europe.

Most of the target demographic for the 500 tends to skew female and beyond that the place where they sell in droves is crowded cities like London for example. Somewhere like Chelsea you'd see three cars come up loads - Range Rover (either Sport or full fat), Maserati Quattroporte or a Fiat 500 for the city runabout for dropping the kids off to school. So unless this A-City really nails that small footprint and the chicness of something like the 500 I can't see it biting into Fiat's lunch money in that regard.

Originally Posted by ajmat

I do recollect Ola Kallenius stating
“We will adjust the portfolio towards the highest pockets of profitability,” Mr Källenius*said, adding that Mercedes was “not going to chase volume” in lower-margin compact segments and that “we are prepared to eliminate models that we don’t think meet the profitability targets”.

This makes me wonder though. As someone amusingly mentioned on the thread, they must be targeting the woke and upwardly mobile twenty somethings like myself with this. I have a sneaking suspicion you'll end up finding it presenting either a similar value package to the Honda E on road or slightly cheaper.

Lord knows what this means for the Smart brand. I've seen probably 10 times more Renault Twingo's based on the shared platform than I've seen Smart ForFours, let alone the ForTwo. My only thought with giving these small cars the Merc badge is that they've realised there's no brand cache or pull left for the Smart brand.

[clementw]

A three door hatch sounds tempting but the product may get killed by the pricing. Will be an interesting experiment.

[microaubin]

WHY NOT?

Target customer? Every luxury car owner is another potential customer for their smaller car choice.

I use an A4 for long drives and I like small hatches for my daily drive and use a GT Tsi. Its been six years with the GT Tsi and I have been looking for another suitable replacement. And right now its either another GT Tsi or a Mini cooper. ( which will cost about 50 lakhs OTR.)

Right now I would consider the VW GTI, Merc A-class, BMW 1 series or the Ford Focus ST. ( Read as hopefully something between 25~35 lakhs. )

And so would a lot of other luxury car owners who would like to upgrade from their smaller second cars.



Markets and customers do evolve and mature...and some cars come in way ahead of their times and some too late.

Let's welcome more cars and choices

[iamahunter]

Err... Mercedes, this is India's favorite hatch.

Toyota would simply change the batch and sell the same car..

But you're German, you would probably change a little more I believe.

Hope you don't have something like this in mind.



Pardon me if I've hurt your feelings.

[volkman10]

Mercedes entry-level luxury car teased for the first time.



[quote] it appears to be a sleek sedan, which leads to believe that it might be the next-generation CLA. With Mercedes saying it will cut back on the number of compact cars, it might merge the A-Class Sedan and CLA into a single model.

The model in question is expected to ride on the already announced MMA platform scheduled to debut in 2024.


Link

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Originally Posted by volkman10

Mercedes entry-level luxury car teased for the first time.

Can't wait to see them price this 42lacs plus ex showroom India in 2 years time and have the boot space of an Alto /s

Snark aside, wasn't Ola Kallenius's big decision since becoming CEO to exit low profit segments entirely. Just curious if the race to the bottom fits that policy of targeting the segments with chunky profit margins per product. (I'm asking this last question in a global context, not just India).