BEV market status quo not sustainable CFO
Operating profit down 6.8 to 4.8 bln euros in Q3
Pricing competition, supply chain snags weigh on earnings
Adjusted returns for cars expected at lower end of forecast

BERLIN, Oct 26 Reuters MercedesBenz said a brutal electric vehicle market of heavy price cuts and supply chain issues meant it would likely hit the lower end of its 1214 adjusted return on sales forecast for the cars division, as thirdquarter earnings fell.

The luxury carmaker said it remained committed to its EV targets, but could bolster earnings with better returns from its combustion engine portfolio if margins on EVs remained lower than previously assumed, its chief financial officer said on an analyst call.

With some traditional players selling battery electric vehicles below the level of internal combustion engine cars despite their higher production costs, this is a pretty brutal space, Harald Wilhelm said.

I can hardly imagine the current status quo is fully sustainable for everybody, he said.

Discounts offered on some models in Germany in the fourth quarter did not represent an overall shift in the carmaker39;s pricing strategy of keeping prices high to focus on boosting margins over volume, Wilhelm said.

Mercedes shares had slid more than 6 by 0733 GMT to their lowest in almost a year, and were the biggest fallers on the euro zone bluechip index. BMW was down 4 and VW more than 2.

Carmakers from Ford to Tesla have been slashing prices…