Thursday, 29 August 2013

Mercedes-Benz to hike prices by up to 4.5 pc - The Hindu

Mercedes-Benz on Thursday said it will hike prices of its entire model range in India by up to 4.5 per cent from September 1 to offset the impact of declining value of the rupee and higher import duties.

The quantum of price revision will be in the range of 2.5 per cent to 4.5 per cent across the models that the company sells in India, the German luxury car maker said in a statement.

"The rising input costs along with higher import duties have been creating significant pressure on our bottomline for quite some time now. The constant weakening of the currency and the increase in other relevant taxes further impacted the business, adversely. We have been absorbing a significant portion of these impacts till now, but to run a sustained and profitable business in the long run, revising the prices upwards was inevitable," Eberhard Kern, Managing Director & CEO, Mercedes-Benz India said.

With the price revision, the company's new A-Class 180 CDI luxury compact car will be priced at Rs 22.05 lakh, an increase of 4 per cent, it said.

The B 180 CDI will be pricier by 4 per cent at Rs 23.50 lakh, while the C-Class 200 CGI will cost Rs 32.25 lakh, an increase of 2.5 per cent. The price for newly launched E-Class 200 CGI will go up by 3.5 per cent at Rs. 42.16 lakh. The company's SUV ML-Class 250 CDI will be priced at 50.98 lakh, up by 4 per cent.

All prices are ex-showroom Mumbai.

Yesterday, General Motors India had hiked prices of its three models by up to Rs 10,000, effective from the first week of September due to a sharp depreciation in the rupee against the US dollar. Earlier this month, BMW group had also hiked price of its products across models, including the Mini, by up to 5 per cent.

Last month, Audi had also hiked prices across its models in India by up to 4 per cent, a maximum of Rs 4.42 lakh on its R8 model to offset the impact of the rupee depreciation and rise in input costs.