Mercedes CEO Ola Källenius on Discounts: A Clear Yes and No
Ola Källenius, CEO of Mercedes, comments on discounts in the automotive sector. His outlook on discounts from Mercedes is quite ambivalent: basically no discounts, but if the market requires it, then yes, but not too much…
“Economic cycles go up and down. But one should not focus on the short term, but rather on how to design the long-term product strategy. If a market is not quite what one had hoped for, it is better to handle the volume carefully than to enter a discount battle. (…) Is this a rejection of further discounts? One cannot completely isolate oneself from market events. That is clear. One is not alone in the market. But one can behave more or less disciplined in relation to other market participants.”
– Ola Källenius, CEO of Mercedes, in “Ola Källenius: ‘We are restructuring a store’ – The head of Mercedes-Benz promises a AI super assistant for the car in the Handelsblatt interview. Källenius warns of a trade war with China and praises Robert Habeck.”, Handelsblatt from 27., 29., 29. October 2023, page 30, No. 208.
