MUMBAI: Last month Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis tweeted that his government cleared a Mercedes-Benz India’s investment proposal in Chakan, which was stuck for clearances for over a year in just 15 days.With the Centre and several state governments taking up the ‘Make in India’ drive earnestly, the manufacturing sector in the country looks set for a resurgence and luxury carmakers are among the first ones to announce new investments, thanks to steep import duty on premium cars as well as the fierce competition for leadership.With fresh fund infusion, Mercedes Benz has increased localisation level of its new C Class CDI 220 to 60 per cent, and shortly all five cars assembled at its Chakan factory will have 60 per cent localisation, including top of the line S Class 500."We are confident that with the production of the new C 220 CDI in India, we will be able to create a higher benchmark in terms of local production of high-end luxury cars in India, and make our customers equally delighted by providing an unmatched value," said Eberhard Kern, managing director at Mercedes-Benz India.Mercedes-Benz has already invested of Rs 1,000 crore at its factory and locally sources and manufactures several key critical components right from engine, gear box, axle, dashboard, seats, tyres and some key electrical components.India is the only the second market after the US where the German luxury carmaker manufactures the ML and GL Class SUVs. The company also plans to add new generation compact sedan CLA to its portfolio of locally manufactured cars.Recently Mercedes-Benz’s Munich-based rival BMW, too, announced fresh investments in India and signed deals with 20 auto component companies to take its localisation level to 50 per cent in India."With a strong portfolio of locally produced cars, the time was appropriate to partner with major Indian auto component suppliers," said Philipp von Sahr, president at BMW Group India. "This decision benefits BMW in terms of cost optimisation and value addition while at the same time it creates business and profitability for our suppliers — a winwin situation," he said.Audi, too, is expected to make significant announcement on the localisation strategy in the next few months. This week, Audi India head Joe King hinted at some significant announcement coming from its parent Volkswagen Group on its next phase of growth in India. "Purely, because the fundamentals of this country are really strong, there is a lot of wealth in this country. There are a lot of rapidly increasing entrepreneurs and young achievers, it is not unrealistic to say, we are looking at a rapid growth in this country. The point is when the market grows rapidly, we want to maintain our share," he said.Over 90 per cent of Audi and BMW’s portfolio in India is locally assembled, but off late there is a renewed push towards further localisation.Almost all mainstream international luxury car makers have local assembly bases, but the higher import duty structure and fluctuating currency has compelled carmakers to look at deeper localisation. Local production not only helps the companies offer more options to the customers and faster time to the market, but it also helps in boosting profits and de-risking themselves to the fluctuating currency, which had impacted the companies severely over the last few years, experts said.Abdul Majeed, partner at Price Waterhouse, said the definition of luxury cars in India is changing and carmakers need to keep on re-inventing themselves. "There is a new customer base getting created at the bottom end of the pyramid that is extremely sensitive of the price, which luxury carmakers need to address without diluting the luxury quotient," he said.