Mercedes-Benz hints at further price hike in September
German-luxury car brand
Mercedes-Benz
India has indicated a further price increase for its cars from September, citing adverse fluctuation of Euro against the Indian Rupee, a top official said here on Monday.
The company already revised its prices by 1.5 per cent, each in January and June this year, Mercedes-Benz India Managing Director and CEO Santosh Iyer said.
"If you see, yesterday night, one Euro is equal to Rs 99 and it is the first time that Euro has breached the Rs 98 mark. We had priced our cars (when One EURO) was at Rs 89-90. With Euro going up, even though we localise more than 30 per cent of our cars, 70 per cent of the cars still have European content and when the EURO goes up (against Rupee), the price (of Mercedes-Benz range of cars) will go up," he told reporters.
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He noted that Mercedes-Benz has already effected a price increase of its cars twice in 2025, in January and June. Up to 1.5 per cent was the increase in hike.
"And the third one (increase in price) equal to 1.5 per cent will come in September, because we cannot pass this in one go and we are doing it in phase wise," he said.
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Despite the proposal to increase the price of cars, Iyer sounded optimistic on retail sales with the Reserve Bank of India announcing interest rate cuts twice this year.
"We have non-banking finance company, Mercedes-Benz Finance and this arm has also reduced the interest rates. About 80 per cent of our cars are financed and today, if you look at June, the price of cars (of Mercedes-Benz) has gone up. But the EMIs remain the same." he said.
He added that the interest rate cuts announced by the Reserve Bank is helping the sales of Mercedes-Benz range of cars for sure.
"I think these are pros and cons. So this year, it is not an easy year from a geo-political macro economy environment and therefore, we want to be a big conservative when we also talk about demand and forecast (for Mercedes-Benz)", he said, responding to a query.
"Right now, we had an excellent May (in terms of Sales) and June also seems to be strong and hopefully, during the festive period, we will bring back even more cheer (in terms of sales for his company)" Iyer said.
Mercedes-Benz declares its sales performance every quarter and the details of the sales are expected to be released in July, he said.
Iyer and top officials of Mercedes-Benz India and Sundaram Motors Executive Director Sharath Vijayaraghavan were here at the launch of top-end luxury experience store in Adyar which has been inaugurated as part of the company's networking strategy.
Iyer said Mercedes-Benz intends to open 30 such showrooms, which includes upgrading the existing facilities and also setting up new outlets this year in new locations.
"This is the 11th such facility. We will be opening 19 more in the next 5 months. These provide Atelier Experience to customers which offers upgraded infrastructure, technology and an exclusive personalisation corner to customers," he said.
After the highly exclusive Maybach Lounge set up in Hyderabad, G-Lounge in Delhi, Mercedes-Benz introduces the bespoke 'Atelier Experience' in Mumbai and Chennai where discerning customers can configure their cars with a range of customisation options, he noted.
Hyper-personalisation is an emerging trend at the top-end luxury segment.
"I think the Atelier Experience is a new step in what we are trying to do in the luxury space. Taking care of top end customer." he said.
With the Atelier Experience, Mercedes-Benz has gone more 'boutique' and the focus is more on top-end vehicle customers like Maybach, AMG, he said and added that over a period of time, Mercedes-Benz India would shift its current 100 touch points to new format stores in future considering the expectation from a customer. PTI
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