Luxury auto manufacturer Mercedes Benz India has announced that it will implement an increase in prices across all its models, from the month of January 2013. This move is being made in order to justify the higher costs associated with raw materials. Similar to this, Chevrolet India has already announced an increase of 1-3 per cent on all its models from January 2013. However, Mercedes Benz India has refused to comment about the scale of price hike that is to be announced.
Commenting on the current situation after taking this decision, Eberhard Kern, Managing Director and CEO for Mercedes Benz India said, “Significant level of cost escalations have been absorbed by us till now, but beyond a point we cannot continue to sustain such levels. We aim for a sustainable profitable growth maintaining our premium appeal and hence, we are going to substantially increase the prices of all Mercedes Benz cars from January 2013. ” The company has said that rising input costs, high exchange rates and inflation have caused a significant decline in margins.
Mercedes Benz India has a range of vehicles in India, such as the C Class, E Class, M Class, SL Class, S Class, GL Class and M Class. The range starts from Rs. 21.09 lakhs to Rs. 1.09 crores (ex showroom New Delhi). It is one of the first luxury car makers to have a localised manufacturing unit in India, but has been facing severe competition from Audi and BMW India, of late.
Audi India has already announced its plans of increasing prices from January 2013, as have other top car makers like Maruti Suzuki India Limited, Toyota Kirloskar Motor and General Motor India. Honda Cars India, Volkswagen and Nissan are also mulling over making such an increase.
