Luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz India would recruit more number of professionals, increasing total headcount of workforce to four-fold, at the research and development centre in Bangalore in the next few years and will invest around Rs 150 crore with the help of partners to expand its business network in the country.

Mercedes-Benz India Managing Director and CEO, Wilfried Aulbur, said, "We will have between 500 and 1,000 engineers working for our R&D centre in Bangalore in the next few years. We currently have about 200-220 people working in the centre." The Luxury car maker is known for spending about 4-5% of its revenue on R&D activities every year.

Mercedes-Benz achieved 46% growth in passenger cars segment in India in 2008 and expects slightly lower growth in the current fiscal under the impact of global slowdown.

Meanwhile, the company announced launch of M-Class sports utility vehicles (SUV), available in 3.0 litre diesel and 3.5 litre petrol engine variants.