Locally-assembled Mercedes-Benz S-Class launch on 7th October

At the time of launch in June, Mercedes-Benz had confirmed that the S-Class will soon be available in the country as a locally assembled model and today, the German marque has confirmed that the CKD S-Class will be launched on 7th October.

The German luxobarge is all set to get a big price cut, thanks to its switch to the CKD route!

The new-generation Mercedes-Benz S-Class was launched in India in June but like its predecessor, it was initially brought to our shores as a Completely-Built Up (CBU) unit. At that point in time, only 150 units of the S-Class were up for grabs and more than half of them were already booked prior to the official launch. However, at the time of launch, Mercedes had confirmed that the S-Class will soon be available in the country as a locally assembled model and today, the German marque has confirmed that the CKD S-Class will be launched on 7th October.

In its CKD form, the S-Class will still be available in the same two variants – S450 4MATIC and S400d 4MATIC. Therefore, no mechanical changes are expected. The biggest change, of course, will come in the form of a hefty price drop. Though not officially confirmed, rumours suggest that the CKD S-Class could cost up to ₹40 lakh less than its CBU counterpart. So, for example, the current prices of the S-Class range from ₹2.17 – 2.19 crore (ex-showroom). Therefore, expect the CKD range to start from around the ₹1.77 crore mark.

But for the price drop though, expect some of the top-shelf bells & whistles to go amiss on the CKD unit. However, Mercedes claims that most of the key features of the CBU unit will be retained. So, expect the abundant digital real estate and features like the fancy ambient lighting to stick around...