Come January and buyers will have to shell out more to buy the cars of their dreamas most of the car makers have decided to hike the prices of their vehicles. India largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki, was the latest carmaker to jack up car prices.
The car makers have attributed the increase in price to rising input costs, weakened rupee against the dollar, an increase in cost components, the Chennai flood (as many factories located there) and so on and so forth.
It will be interesting to see how consumers will react to the price hike and its impact on the auto industry as it is only in the last one year that the industry has embarked on a path of growth.
Here is a list of car makers going for a price hike from January 2016:
Maruti Suzuki: Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, the nation's biggest carmaker by sales, plans to raise prices of its cars by up to Rs 20,000 ($300), starting January 1, to offset cost increases and unfavourable foreign exchange rates, a company spokesman said.
Hyundai Motors: Country’s second largest car maker, Hyundai Motors, announced that it will hike prices of its products by up to Rs 30,000, effective from January 2016. The hike will be effective on all models including its top selling model Elite and Creta. The company in an statement said, "Factors like increase in cost components, weak rupee, etc are reasons to hike prices of cars.”
General Motors: Keeping up with the trend, General Motors also announced its plan to hike prices of its locally manufactured vehicles by up to 2 per cent from January 2016. The company is increasing prices of Chevrolet vehicles built locally but the hike is not applicable to the recently launched premium sports utility vehicle Trailblazer.
Toyota: Japanese auto major Toyota is going to hike prices of its cars by up to 3 per cent from January, 2016. The reason behind doing this is to offset rising input costs and unfavourable foreign exchange fluctuation. However, the company is yet to finalise the details on the quantum of hike on individual models.
Toyota Kirloskar Motor Director said, "Input costs, electricity, maintenance and foreign exchange have increased so we have decided to increase prices of our vehicles."
BMW: German luxury automobile manufacturer BMW is going to increase the prices of their cars by up to 5% across its products in India effective from January 1, 2016.
By the end of this year, the company reportedly said it will expand its dealer network by increasing the number of outlets to across 50 metropolitan cities in India.
Mercedes-Benz: India’s top selling luxury carmaker will increase the price of its cars in India by up to 2 per cent from January 1, 2016. The company that launched 14 products this year said, "We are compelled to make some price adjustments to our product range to protect the investment of our customers."
BW Reporters
The author is Senior Correspondent with BW Businessworld
