Report - Mercedes India to launch the C-Class Grand Edition next week

Mercedes-Benz India will roll out the 50,000th car out of its Chakan plant next Tuesday. The company has also announced that on this occasion, it will launch what it calls the 'C-Class Grand Edition,' another special edition of the C-Class.

As of now, the Mercedes-Benz India plant assembles the C-Class, ML-Class, GL-Class, E-Class and S-Class. The company has been repeating that it is pushing its higher command to locally assemble the A-Class ever since its launch was welcomed with 400 bookings within 10 days. Both NGCC models are still CBUs.

The Mercedes-Benz manufacturing facility in Chakan has an annual capacity of 10,000 units. The company had recently said that come 2014, it will have a capacity of producing 20,000 cars a year. This takes the cumulative investment in its Indian operations to Rs 850 crore. The company also has a research and development centre alongside in Bengaluru.

The R&D centre began as a research institute with just 8 employees back in 1998 and has now grown to 580 employees. In fact, the Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India (MBRDI) is the company's largest R&D centre outside of Germany.

Mercedes-Benz also inaugurated its centre of excellence within the premises of its Chakan plant last year, building a helipad for prospective AMG customers to arrive at their convenience to configure their purchase.