Rare Pics: Ratan Tata Launching Mercedes Benz In India

Mercedes-Benz is one of the leading luxury car manufacturers in India. Mercedes cars are a common sight on our roads, and the brand probably has one of the largest line-ups of vehicles in the Indian market. Mercedes-Benz has been present in India for over two decades, but did you know that the first Mercedes-Benz car in India was actually launched in the presence of Mr. Ratan Tata? Here we have a picture from that launch, along with the story behind it.

The image has been shared by Motornow Media on their Instagram page. In this image, we see Mr. Ratan Tata speaking into a microphone while a Mercedes-Benz E-Class W124 rolls out. Mercedes was not an unfamiliar name to Indians. Tata Motors, which was then called TELCO, and Daimler-Benz entered into a partnership in 1954. This partnership was aimed at manufacturing heavy vehicles such as trucks. Both brands remained in this partnership until 1969.

In 1994, when the Indian economy was liberalised, things began to change. Mercedes-Benz then approached TELCO and entered into a partnership to officially enter the luxury car segment in India. For a country like India, luxury cars were still a dream for many, but the Germans recognised the market’s potential and went ahead with the collaboration.

After this partnership came into existence, the first car to hit the Indian market was the E-Class. This was the first Mercedes-Benz car to be officially launched in India. The car seen in the image is the W124 E220, which was the petrol version. Along with this, Mercedes also offered the E250, which was the diesel variant.

If you didn’t know, the E-Class was actually assembled in India. It was locally assembled at TELCO’s plant in Pune, Maharashtra. At launch, the E-Class was offered at an on-road price of around Rs 20 lakh. It was because of this collaboration that Ratan Tata launched Mercedes-Benz in India.

The W124 is now an extremely rare car, and many collectors are often on the lookout for clean examples to restore or even customise. However, when it was launched in 1994, one of the main issues with the W124 was that it was already an outdated model. Internationally, Mercedes-Benz had already moved on to the newer W210 generation.

Mercedes-Benz managed to sell fewer than 3,000 units of the W124 over the next three years, which was far below their target of 7,500 units. Initially, the W124 was launched only with a petrol engine. The E220 used a 2.2-litre, four-cylinder engine that produced 150 PS and 210 Nm of peak torque. It was available with both manual and automatic transmission options.

A year after the launch of the E220, Mercedes-Benz introduced the E250, which was powered by a 2.5-litre inline five-cylinder diesel engine producing 113 bhp and 173 Nm of peak torque. Although their first product, the W124, was not an outright success, Mercedes-Benz learned from the experience. The brand soon returned with newer and more updated models offering better luxury and premium features.

Over time, Mercedes-Benz slowly won the trust of affluent Indian buyers and firmly established itself as one of the leading luxury car brands in the country.