Mercedes Wants The Cool Kids

CORE CONVERSATION

Mercedes-Benz India CEO Santosh Iyer On Catching Up With EV Boom And India Strategy

When one thinks of the owner of a Mercedes-Benz car, at least in India, they would probably imagine someone older because of how expensive their cars are. But speak to Iyer and he will tell you otherwise. 

“Our average age today for an S-class (buyer) is 38 years old,” Iyer said in this week’s The Core Report: Weekend edition. 

This did not happen out of the blue. Iyer said that the “design language” of their cars has changed significantly along with a growth in income for certain age groups. “Today, we are the most expensive luxury car brand across price segments. But still, we are the most desirable car brand… I still feel that this young versus old is more in the mindset. I believe India, Indian consumers by default, also because of the demographics, because of the income levels, have also grown younger,” he said. 

The luxury car brand, which has been around for almost a century, has also gone through reinventions to place itself as a product that young people can buy. 

In India, it has seen growth across cities and segments. Iyer said, “But apart from the demographics on the age side, even women buyers have doubled, you know, we used to be 7% to 8% was women buyers, today it's around 15%. Salaried professionals from 8 to 9% have gone up to 15%. So these are again, certain income level or demographic shift that we see, which again gives us hope that the market should grow much more in the times to come.” 

What About EVs? 

No car brand can exist today without thinking of developing its electric vehicle (EV) fleet, and Mercedes-Benz isn’t far behind. One of the main reasons why customers are buying EVs,  Iyer believes, is the value proposition. 

“If you buy an EV of Rs 1 lakh, you get Rs 95,000 worth of content and Rs 5,000 goes to the government in GST. There are no road tax in many parts of India. So from a sheer value for money, EV makes sense to a lot of people who do this match. Second is, of course, the running cost,” Iyer said. 

He added that school or college-going children in families are more environmentally conscious and driving decisions to buy EVs. 

How is Mercedes-Benz working to reinvent itself in a world where EVs are becoming popular than combustion engine cars?

CORE NUMBER

Rs 16,500 crore

This is the total amount of investment going into a new coal powered project, a pact signed between State-owned Coal India and the Damodar Valley Corporation. It will be set up in Jharkhand, the largest coal producer in India. The brownfield project, expected to have 1,600 MW capacity, will be an expansion of the existing Chandrapura Thermal Power Station. This comes at a time when India’s strides towards renewable energy have faced various roadblocks because of various gaps including lack of investments.

—⚙️ Steel Strikes Back! India is set to impose a 12% safeguard duty on select steel imports to counter the flood of cheap shipments, mainly from China. The move follows the steel industry’s repeated alarms about Chinese steel undercutting local prices and hurting domestic mills. Imports hit a nine-year high of 9.5 million metric tons in FY25, with China, South Korea, and Japan accounting for 78% of the total inflow. The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) had earlier flagged the issue, recommending urgent intervention. Smaller Indian mills are now scaling back operations, with job cuts looming, prompting the government to act before the damage becomes irreversible.

—♻️ Pushback On e-waste Policy Samsung, LG, Daikin, and others are suing the Indian government over its new e-waste recycling pricing policy, which mandates a fixed minimum payout of Rs 22/kg to recyclers. The companies argue the policy unfairly shifts financial burden onto manufacturers, tripling compliance costs, without addressing the core issue: India's informal, poorly regulated scrap sector. With only 43% of India’s e-waste formally recycled, the e-waste policy aims to curb reliance on informal scrap dealers, but companies say price controls won’t solve a ‘systemic problem’.

—🚗 SUV Boom Builds! Sports Utility Vehicle (SUVs) now make up a staggering 68.5% of Hyundai’s total sales in India, according to new FY25 data—a sharp 8% jump from last year. Hyundai’s Creta model was the top-selling passenger vehicle in India as of March 2025, with 18,059 units. The Creta competes with rivals like the Kia Seltos, Maruti Grand Vitara, and Toyota Hyryder. SUVs accounted for nearly 60% of India’s record 4.3 million passenger vehicle sales in FY25, reflecting a strong consumer preference for these models in India.

—❌ To America? Maybe Not! Trump’s policies are not only hampering world trade, but now travel to the US as well. The Economic Times reports a 9% decrease in Indian passport holders travelling to the US as the country’s administration has put student and work visa holders under scrutiny. There has been a sharp decline in travel in March according to airline authorities cited in the report. This comes amid deportations of foreign students from the country for offences as minor as traffic violations. Indian students and their parents are also reconsidering plans for studying in the US amid the crackdown on immigration.

HOW INDIA’S ECONOMY WORKS

World Of Liberal Trade A ‘Mirage’, Says Professor Abhijit Das

The trade war, caused by Donald Trump’s ‘Liberation Day' tariffs, is in full swing. While some countries, like India, are trying to work out deals with the US, China has vowed threats not only against the US, but more recently, it has threatened action against countries that strike trade deals at its expense. 

Professor Abhijit Das, India’s leading trade expert, told journalist Puja Mehra, “We are in the midst of chaos. We are at the centre of a disorder.” 

While China has called for Asian countries to unite, Das said that the setting up of a new world order in trade had not happened yet. 

India is one of the countries that is trying to make a bilateral agreement with the US. But, countries like Japan and South Korea, which already had such agreements with the US, were not spared.  

“So while the world used to be called a world of liberal trade, free trade, it really was free trade or liberal trade when it suited the developed world. Where it did not suit the developed world, the principles of free trade were put on the side and of course that was not commented upon much by most of the media, by much of the academia as well. So we had a mirage that we were living in a world of free trade whereas the reality was slightly different from that,” Das said. 

How should India really respond to the global chaos that we’re currently experiencing? 

PODCAST

On Episode 562 of The Core Report, financial journalist Govindraj Ethiraj talks to Vandana Hari, Founder & CEO at Vandana Insights as well as G.R Senthilvel, Secretary of Tirupur Exporters and Manufacturers Association.

• The markets begin the week with a bang

• Gold hits fresh high, dollar is down

• Oil price volatility is making it difficult to project outlook

• China sends back ordered 2 Boeing aircraft, Air India and Malaysian Airlines reach out to Boeing to buy them

• Garment exporters want to exploit 90-day tariff pause but find it tough to freeze pricing with US importers

👥 THE TEAM

✍️ Zinal Dedhia, Salman SH, Kudrat Wadhwa | ✂️ Rohini Chatterji | 🎧 Joshua Thomas