Benz promises more compacts

Increased supply of popular compact models such as the A-Class and brand new GLA cross-over is believed to have been promised to Mercedes-Benz Australia within hours of a member of the company’s global board being interviewed about the issue.

Dr Thomas Weber, the board member at Mercedes-Benz AG for research and car development, acknowledged to Australian media at the global launch of the GLA this week in Spain, that the long waiting list for customers in Australia was a problem.

The most problematic car is the new A 45 AMG, for which the wait now stretches into 2016. The three-model GLA range, which goes on-sale in Australia from April was expected to be limited to just 100 sales per month.

“Normally this [demand outstripping supply] is a good story, but I know especially in Australia there is a lot of complaints from the customer base,” Weber acknowledged.

“They want to order the vehicle and we cannot supply it to them,” he told motoring.com.au.

The next day it is understood confirmation arrived at Mercedes-Benz Australia’s offices in Melbourne that more compact models would be found for the marketplace. At this stage. However, it is not known just how many extra cars will be freed up and from where they will come.

Mercedes-Benz currently builds four cars on its front/all-wheel drive MFA architecture – the A and B-class, CLA sedan and the just launched GLA. A fifth and final MFA model, the CLA Shooting Brake, will go on-sale before the end of the year.

Benz sold more 370,000 MFA-based vehicles worldwide in 2013, a climb of 64 per cent on 2012. A fourth MFA assembly plant is being established in China as Benz scrambles to catch up with demand, but it won’t come on stream until later this year.

“The situation is we are overall limited and we are running a lot of discussions about what could be done to increase and optimise the production footprint of the company,” Weber confirmed.

“We have to deal with this situation and we do everything possible. The production side is aware of the situation, the supplier side is aware.

“However, I hope you can understand we will never harm quality. When we launch a vehicle our key priority is quality comes first. We have quality launch ramp-up, so as always when you have a hot vehicle in your portfolio it will come to limitation shortly after launch,” he said.

Weber said Mercedes-Benz had taken the lessons from the MFA into account for the launch of the new W205 C-class, which will be built almost from the start in four factories. The first W205s should get to Australia in July or August.

“In the end the biggest story, I think, is we are on a growth path -- dramatically faster than all of our competitors,” said Weber.

“The overall story for Mercedes is great. We are in an aggressive growth mode.”

Mercedes-Benz’s target is to hit 2.0m passenger car and SUV sales by 2020 and climb back to the top of the world luxury sales pile ahead of Audi and BMW in the process.

Weber expressed confidence the inevitable tension between satisfying rapidly increasing demand for AMG models and preserving the performance icon’s exclusivity and credibility could be achieved. He said that call would be made segment by segment.

“AMG’s growth rate is definitely controlled by the question ‘how far can we grow with a share without any risk to harm the brand’,” he said.

“For example if it comes to the G-Wagen… We sold more than 12,000 last year and the share of AMG is about 50 per cent. So would it harm the brand? No. Because we are dealing in such a specific segment I think 50:50 is okay. Even 60 per cent. Why not?

“But 60 per cent in the C-Class, definitely not. That would harm the brand of AMG. So that discretion is linked to segments and vehicle types and we will control it,” he said.

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