German luxury carmaker Mercedes Benz on Tuesday (July 26) launched the popular sports car AMG SLC 43. Priced at Rs 77.50 lakh (ex showroom Delhi) the car has been launched in India within four months of its international debut.
Roland Folger, Managing Director and CEO, Mercedes Benz India, said, "Mercedes-Benz set new standards in the luxury open top motoring in India with the launch of the SLK. With the launch of the Mercedes-AMG SLC 43, we continue to follow our 'top of pyramid' approach and take pride in offering the widest range of performance vehicles for our astute Indian customers."
Folger also said that bringing the car to India in such a short span from its global launch is a testimony that the company views the country as one of its top markets.
The Mercedes-AMG SLC 43 is the first V6 model to feature the new nomenclature. The 43 here stands for the 3.0-litre V6 bi-turbo engine that has been further developed by the AMG engineers. The car can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in just 4.7 seconds.
Mercedes, which is one of the worst affected carmakers in the ongoing diesel ban issue in the Delhi region, is planning to have petrol versions of all its models sold in India by September 2016.
According to the Supreme Court order, diesel cars with engine capacity of more than 2000cc are not permitted to be registered within the National Capital Region.
"We will be complete with petrol engines in September. Then we will have basically a petrol variant in each of our carlines available. It was a decision we made in the middle of last year," said Folger. Most of the car in the company’s lineup come in diesel variant and have a displacement of more than 2.0 litres.
BW Reporters
The author is Senior Correspondent with BW Businessworld