Mercedes-Benz says it is continuing to grow its premium range in Russia despite overall market gloom, but is pouring cold water on suggestions it has selected three sites in the country to establish a factory.
Reports in Russia cite Sverdlovsk, St Petersburg or Kazan in Tatarstan as possible locations for Mercedes-Benz, which despite a dip last month, is nonetheless considerably outperforming the heavily struggling market.
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“We had an increase of more than 16% in January and February – we have a slight decrease of 4% in March so this is the first month for us of slight decrease,” a Mercedes-Benz spokeswoman told just-auto from Stuttgart.
“There is the difference between a normal automotive market and premium market and we are happy to be in the premium market. We have to wait and see what happens in the rest of the year.
“In the first quarter of 2015, we grew by almost 8%. Our top cars [are] the E, C, S Class and the entire SUV family.”
Figures from the AEB show the Russian market sinking 43% last month on top of a 38% slide in February, but Mercedes-Benz bucked the overall gloomy trend by posting an 8% increase to 11,300 cars in the first three month of this year.
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By GlobalDataAny establishment of a production site in Russia would come as a huge vote of confidence to the embattled automotive sector in Russia, which is being battered by a succession of macro-economic headwinds including sky-high interest rates, soaring inflation and rouble depreciation as international sanctions surrounding Crimea continue to bite.
“These [factory] reports – and a lot of speculation – have been around in Russia for almost a year,” a Daimler spokesman told just-auto from Germany.
“We have been saying pretty much the same ever since, which is basically there are currently no decisions regarding local production of Mercedes-Benz passenger cars in Russia.
“We have also always been saying at the same time it is correct we are reviewing the parameters of location production pretty much everywhere in all markets and regions. And hence also in Russia.
“Beyond that we are not commenting on this speculation.”
Reports also note apparent remarks by Invest in Russia concerning future car production in the country, but the organisation was not immediately available from Moscow to confirm them.
“It remains to be seen how the difficult economic situation will affect Mercedes-Benz sales in Russia during the rest of the year,” added the Mercedes spokeswoman.
“The Russian economy has been in a difficult phase before the crisis and is now further affected which influences the Russian auto market and therefore Daimler as well.
“We cannot elude the economic development.”
