Mercedes-Benz Malaysia in for another big year
Last week, Mercedes-Benz Malaysia’s Mark Raine (Sales & Marketing VP) was in the industry spotlight again as he detailed yet another record-breaking year for the brand in terms of sales. 24 hours later, we found ourselves in his company again. Only this time, we’re all the way in Indonesia’s Central Java region: the venue for the German carmaker’s latest instalment of its ‘Hungry for Adventure’ initiative.
In between sampling some of Stuttgart’s standout SUVs such as the G63 AMG and GLS400 in what was an adventure-packed itinerary (read all about it in the next issue of TGM), we managed to sneak a one-on-one with Raine, who was in visibly good spirits as he recalled some of his presentation material from the day before.
“Last year was highly exciting. It was the year with the most launches for us. It was also very interesting for us because it was the first time the year was completely balanced”
Raine was referring to the distribution of new product ranges launched in the past year, which included the locally-assembled AMG 43 models, the facelifted S-Class range and the official introduction of the EQ brand in between. And he plans to keep things just as rich moving forward.
“We’ve prepared the railway tracks for further growth. For instance we look at the A-Class launch, now you could say it was completely OTT (over the top). Maybe it was. It was intentional because for me that’s to kick-start the next generation of compact cars, with a lot of that coming in 2019, I’m highly excited,” he added.
Despite making up the smallest cars in the Mercedes-Benz portfolio, the compact car range doesn’t sell as well as the ever-popular saloons. In fact, last year’s total of 1,875 units sold marked a 7.7 percent decline in sales for the A-Class, CLA and GLA models. Pricing could be a factor as these models are fully imported. But all that could change as Raine confirmed that local assembly is currently under consideration.
“Naturally, to continue to grow, we need to invest in our locally produced vehicles. It’s fairly straightforward where the opportunity lies,” said Raine.
While on the topic of compact cars, let's not forget that the highly-anticipated second-gen A45 has also been teased and will likely join the Malaysian line-up before the year ends.
As we took a breather and glanced at the impressive fleet of SUVs brandishing the three-pointed star, one thing became obvious – the new GLE was missing. However, the X5’s rival should be arriving in Malaysia sooner than later.
"Yes, the GLE is coming. It’s going to be one of the 10 cars launched in the first half of the year"
“Part of our philosophy and strategy when we wanted to bring the SUVs into the Malaysian market on a bigger scale was the lifestyle aspect. Let’s face it, many of our customers take these cars to the golf course, to transport their bicycles and to Bangsar Shopping Centre to do their shopping. It complements the active lifestyle of Malaysians in my point of view. And paying tribute to that, we came up with Hungry for Adventure as the theme around our SUVs.”
“I want to always be on top of the customer’s mindset. The coolness factor, the lifestyle element of it – that’s something you will remember”
