Mercedes-Benz India to hike prices by up to 5% from Jan

Luxury automobile manufacturer Mercedes-Benz India on Wednesday announced a hike in the ex-showroom price across its entire model range by up to 5% with effect from January 1, 2023, owing to high increasing inflationary pressures and high input costs, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. A constant increase in input costs and increased logistics costs have been exerting significant pressure on the overall operational costs of the company, which prompted Mercedes-Benz to revise the prices to enable a sustainable and profitable business. 

With this, the price of GLA 200 and GLA 220d models have been revised to ₹46,5 lakhs, and ₹48 lakhs, respectively. The price of the automobile manufacturer’s C 200 and C 220d models have been revised to ₹57.5 lakhs and ₹58.5 lakhs, respectively. The price of E 200 Exclusive and E220d Exclusive models has been hiked to ₹72.5 lakhs and ₹73.5 lakhs, respectively. The revised pricing for Mercedes-Benz’s GLE 300d 4M and GLE 400d 4M models will be ₹88 lakhs and ₹1.05 crores, respectively. The prices of the Mercedes S 350d model, Mercedes-Maybach S 580, and Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600 CBU have been hiked to ₹1.65 crore, ₹2.57 crore, and ₹2.92 crore, respectively. 

Martin Schwenk, managing director, and chief executive officer of Mercedes-Benz India said, “Mercedes-Benz has been creating benchmarks in the luxury automotive industry in India, introducing world-class products and technologies for the discerning customers. However, to run a sustainable and profitable business for us and our Franchise Partners, a price correction is necessitated to offset the rising inflationary cost pressures.”

“Though we are absorbing the majority of the increase, internally we are left with no option but to pass on some portion of the cost hike to the customers. The price correction will ensure the brand’s premium price positioning and continue to offer best-in-class ownership experiences associated with Mercedes-Benz,” he added. 

Notably, earlier in the day, luxury car maker Audi India also announced price hike for the second time this year by 1.7% across its entire model range, with effect from January 1 next year owing to a rise in input costs and high operational costs. In September, Audi announced price hike citing similar reasons. 

Balbir Singh Dhillon, Audi India head said, “The primary objective of the company's business strategy focuses on a model that begets profitability and sustainability. The price correction is affected as a result of the rising supply-chain-related input and operational costs. The new price for our models is directed at maintaining the premium price positioning of our brand, ensuring sustainable growth for Audi India."

Audi India’s current line-up includes the petrol-powered Audi A4, Audi A6, Audi A8 L, Audi Q3, Audi Q5, Audi Q7, Audi Q8, Audi S5 Sportback, Audi RS 5 Sportback, Audi RS 5 Sportback and Audi RSQ8. The company has Audi e-tron 50, Audi e-tron 55, Audi e-tron Sportback 55, Audi e-tron GT and Audi RS e-tron GT in its electric vehicles portfolio.

Meanwhile, India's biggest passenger vehicle manufacturer Maruti Suzuki Ltd has decided to increase prices across its entire range of vehicles starting January 2023. The company says it continues to see increased cost pressure driven by overall inflation and recent changes in rules by the government.

Maruti has not revealed how much it plans to increase prices by. Maruti holds about 40% of the market share in India's passenger vehicle market. Before this, Maruti had hiked prices of its popular hatchback models like Swift and all CNG variants as input costs continued to put pressure. The company increased PV prices by around 8% from January 2021 to March 2022 as commodities became costlier.

Moreover, according to reports, the country’s second-largest automobile manufacturer Tata Motors is also mulling for a price hike across its entire model range while complying with stricter emission norms from April 1, 2023, owing to high commodity prices.