Mercedes-Benz considers price hike early next year over forex woes

Luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz is looking to increase prices early next year in order to offset the impact of a weakened rupee against the euro, according to the company's MD and CEO Santosh Iyer.

The automaker has already increased prices by around 3.5-4 per cent this year.

"We are still priced around 93-94 to the euro, and the euro today is at 103 level, which means we will be forced to take further price increases, maybe early next year," Iyer told PTI in an interaction.

He noted that the company is avoiding taking the price increase for now but "there would be not an option" going ahead.

"And that means, again, we go back to a higher pricing levels... but we feel the market should be able to absorb the higher pricing in the future if overall macro economy improves, because the purchasing power will improve significantly, and there should be a big traction (post-GST rate cut)," Iyer said.

The depreciation of the rupee against the Euro is close to 14-15 per cent and the company so far increased price just 3.5-4 per cent, he stated.

"So we still need to cover it, but we are hopeful that the rupee may become stronger again. Rupee was stable at 90 level for a couple of years, actually, so maybe it finds a new point, and then stabilises," Iyer said.

The company has announced price cut ranging from Rs 2 lakh (A-Class) to Rs 10 lakh (S-Class) due to GST rate rationalisation.

Mercedes-Benz sold 18,928 units in India in 2024-25, with one out of every four cars sold priced above Rs 1.5 crore.