New Merc C-Class comes with less weight, more Indian R&D

The new Mercedes-Benz C-class, which is slated for an official launch in India on November 25, will be lighter but with more solutions developed by the German carmaker’s Indian Research and Development (R&D) arm.

The new luxury C-Class was unveiled on Wednesday at CeBIT, India’s premium IT and ICT expo, which  commenced at Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC) today in Bangalore.

Showcasing the car at the expo, Eberhard Kern, MD and CEO of Mercedes-Benz India, said that one of the special features of the new C-Class is that car weighs around 50kg less than the previous version. He said the company’s R&D division in India – Mercedes-Benz Research & Development India Pvt Ltd (MBRDI) – has contributed remarkably to achieve this ‘less weight’ milestone.

MBRDI has provided strong support towards implementing lightweight engineering in the C-class platform. “As soon as you think about bringing in more lightweight material with the assurance of the same safety level of Mercedes-Benz products, the company needs to do a huge amount of analysis in stiffness, crash, durability and Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE). It is here that the Indian simulation team contributed strongly towards this concept.”

The MBRDI division in Bangalore has also developed several solutions in connection with telematics, infotainment and connectivity in the new C-class. For the India-specific C-class, the modification in the navigation system has also been supported by the Indian R&D team.  

Kern said, “Our customers expect not only appealing design, outstanding quality and superb performance from a Mercedes-Benz vehicle but they also like to stay connected, entertained and informed when using their vehicles”.

“We offer our customers an ideal in-car infotainment system and the new C-class sets the benchmark in terms of integrating next-generation telematics and IT systems. We are constantly implementing the latest technologies available, up to the stage where we are a front-runner in the development of semi-autonomous and autonomous driving.”

As per the company’s plans, it plans to launch its new C-class sedan in 2015. But it will start selling the new C-class from November 25 by importing it as Completely Built Units (CBUs) from Germany. The local production of the luxury car is expected to begin from the first quarter of next year.

When asked about local content, Kern said the localisation level is already high in the C-class. “It is not only assembled here but we also do body work and painting and the local content in total is in the range of 35 to 40 percent.”

According to Manu Saale, managing director and CEO of MBRDI, the MBRDI division in Bangalore is the largest R&D centre of Daimler outside Germany and contributes to various R&D domains and IT engineering.

R&D and IT in India are getting stronger for Daimler. Already in 2014, about 106 million Euros worth of R&D and IT related work has been delivered from India for Daimler worldwide. It is the first time that the the worth of Indian work for Daimler has crossed three figure number.

The new C-Class is a connected car in many aspects. Lot of connectivity solutions has been delivered from Bangalore R&D centre. Not just for the model in India but also for the model that was launched recently in Europe, he added.

Kern said the company planned to launch 10 new products in India this year, of which nine products have been already launched. MBRDI plays a key role for the company to implement localisation. For instance the recently launched new GLA model has a ground clearance of 183mm. This is the benchmark and the best in this segment in India and it is not standard in Europe. With road conditions in India being very different compared to Europe, customers in India asked for high ground clearance that has been achieved by the Indian R&D team in a short period of time.

Beside the tough market condition, Mercedes-Benz has done well in India. “We will cross 10,000 units in sales this year in India. In addition by the end of this year, the company will have 70 dealers in almost 40 cities across the country. We expect that 2015 will be the year of the new C-class. Out of 10,000 units sales expected in 2014, around 20 percent would come from the C-class,” said Kern. Last year Mercedes-Benz India sold 9,003 units.