Mercedes-Benz India has launched a luxury multi-purpose vehicle, the V-Class in India. It comes in two variants called the V-Class Expression and Exclusive, priced at Rs 68.40 lakh and Rs 81.90 lakh respectively.
These are in either a seven-seat (Expression) or six-seat (Exclusive) configuration, with a host of luxury features, which even allow for corporates to conduct business on the go, with swivel seats transforming into a meeting space. The V-Class will be imported and sold as a completely built unit (CBU) in India. It will appeal to mainly the chauffeur-driven segment and also the hospitality and tourism industry.
The Mercedes-Benz V-Class comes with a 2,143 cc, four-cylinder, BS-VI compliant diesel engine with a seven-speed automatic transmission. It puts out 161bhp of power and 380 Nm of torque, allowing to go from 0-100 Kmph in 10.9 seconds.
The V-Class comes with two styles of seating and two sizes of wheelbase and length. In the Expression variant, the vehicle gets a 3,430 mm wheelbase, with seven forward-facing seats. In the Exclusive variant, it gets a slightly shorter 3,200 mm wheelbase with six seats. This has a unique feature that allows the seats in the rear to face each other, with a movable conference table in the centre, that doubles up as a meeting space.
The rear sliding doors are electrically operated and the seats can swivel to make it easy to get in and out of the vehicle. It gets a host of features found on the Mercedes E-Class and S-Class including a 360 degree camera, parking assist, six airbags, including curtain airbags for the entire cabin, crosswind assist, driver attention assist etc. LED headlamps, tail-lamps and large 18-inch alloy wheels complete the styling package.
There isn’t any competition in this segment, so it will be interesting to see what kind of demand a luxury van like this can generate.
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