Luxury carmaker Mercedes—Benz has bagged its single largest fleet order in India so far, comprising 120 C—Class sedans, from car rental firm Carzonrent.
As part of the deal, the German carmaker will supply 120 units of its C—Class sedans to Delhi—based Carzonrent in a deal pegged at around Rs 40 crore.
“This is the biggest single corporate deal by Mercedes—Benz in India. The growing preference for Mercedes products by exclusive customers is a strong reaffirmation for the brand’s immaculate equity,” Mercedes—Benz India Managing Director & CEO Eberhard Kern told reporters here.
The company would be supplying the cars in the next four weeks across Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai, he added.
Commenting on the deal, Carzonrent MD Rajiv Vij said Mercedes—Benz was the right fit in terms of a similar customer oriented approach, coupled with strong brand equity and reliability.
“It is with this objective that we have now added 120 Mercedes—Benz C—Class units which will increase the premium and luxury fleet size to 800 cars and also expand our reach throughout the country,” he added.
When asked about the the company’s future plans, Vij said the company intends to invest around Rs 1,200 crore in the next three years on fleet expansion, taking the total number of cars in fleet to 30,000 units.
“Our fleet size is currently around 7,500 cars. In the next three years we plan to invest around Rs 1,200 crore to take it to 30,000 units by 2017,” Vij said.
Out of the earmarked capital, the company plans to invest around Rs 100 crore to further expand its luxury car fleet.
“After the deal with Mercedes, we are still left with Rs 60 crore to invest this year. Besides adding luxury sedans, we would also looking to add sports utility vehicles, vans and mid sized cars in the fleet,” Vij said.
Currently luxury cars constitute just around 10 per cent of the company’s total fleet and is expected to grow to around 14—15 per cent over the next three years, he added.