Asian Tech Press (Sep 29) -- Germany's Volkswagen, Audi AG and other foreign car companies have raised prices in the Japanese market due to fears of inflation.

Nikkei reported on Wednesday that foreign automakers in the Japanese market began to raise prices ahead of Japanese companies against the backdrop of growing global raw material prices.

Volkswagen has raised prices up to 100,000 yen ($897) or more, and Audi has raised prices up to 150,000 yen ($1,345).

As European and American companies are worried about inflation, they have transferred the rise in raw materials to the price. Japanese manufacturers can not increase prices due to low domestic consumption, which is in sharp contrast to foreign companies.

Among the top 10 imported car brands by sales, five brands will start to increase their prices in the fall of 2021. Volkswagen's Tiguan R will be raised from the original 6,849,000 yen (about $61,440,000) to 102,000 yen (about $915) in October. And Mercedes-Benz plans to increase prices by up to 500,000 yen ($4,484), which has been implemented in some models. European Stellantis-owned Peugeot and Jeep have also increased prices.

According to reports, Mercedes-Benz has increased prices in Germany almost every year, but in Japan, in addition to configuration changes, etc., has been kept price changes modest. The Japanese corporation of Mercedes said that this time, because corporate efforts have reached the limit, the price increase of raw materials will be transferred to the price after six and a half years.