Mercedes drives in new AMG C43 Coupe

Pune: Mercedes-Benz, India’s biggest luxury car maker by sales on Thursday introduced the new Mercedes-AMG C43 Coupe, a performance car, to boost sales in Asia’s third biggest economy.

Priced at Rs 75 lakh at pan India showroom, the Mercedes-AMG C43 Coupe at present competes with its only rival the BMW M2 Competition costing Rs 79.90 lakh.

The Mercedes-AMG C43 Coupe is the second new product in 2019 after the Pune-headquartered brand launched the Mercedes V-Class, a luxury multi-purpose vehicle or MPV targeted at the corporate honchos in the country.

“We have been very successful with our AMG product strategy in India, which comprises a wide array of performance cars under the 43, 45, 63 and the GT range,” Martin Schwent, MD and CEO at Mercedes-Benz India, said.

“The response to the AMG 43 range has been amazing since its debut with the AMG GLE 43, and today we give further fillip to the line-up with the AMG C 43 Coupe,” he boasted without giving sales numbers of the AMG brand.

About three years back in 2016, Mercedes-Benz had introduced the AMG C43 Sedan, which found quite a few takers. The Mercedes C-Class has since had a facelift, and the luxury carmaker launched the updated C-class Sedan and Cabriolet last year.

Instead of bringing the C43 Sedan facelift in the market, the company has decided to first launch the Mercedes C43 Coupe in the country to take on compatriot rivals such as BMW, Audi, British Jaguar Land Rover, Swedish Volvo and Lexus, the luxury arm of Japanese Toyota.

Mercedes C43 two-door Coupe is powered by the 3.0-litre, twin-turbocharged V6 engine that also does duty in other 43-series models. In the Mercedes C43 Coupe, the upgraded V6 makes 390hp (up from 367hp in the pre-facelift model) and 520Nm of torque. It boasts of sprinting from 0-100kph in just 4.7 seconds, and its top speed is electronically limited to 250 kph.

The Mercedes-AMG C43 Coupe also gets the 4MATIC+ all-wheel-drive system, so power is channelled to all four wheels via a 9-speed automatic gearbox, but the AWD system is tuned to direct 69 per cent of the torque to the car's rear wheels.

Additionally, it gets AMG’s ‘Ride Control’ suspension with three modes such as Comfort, Sport and Sport+ and five Dynamic Select drive modes such as Comfort, Sport, Sport+, Slippery and Individual.

Mercedes Benz India Limited