The country’s biggest car manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki India will be hiking the price of its range of models by Rs. 20,000 from January 2016. A Maruti Suzuki India spokesperson said the price rise was inevitable because of increasing administrative and other costs, and a price rise was long overdue.
Maruti Suzuki sells a wide range of cars from economy class to premium class. Its entry level small car Alto 800 to the S-Cross has a price tag from Rs. 2.53 to Rs. 13.74 lakh.
Rivals, Hyundai has also decided to hike the prices of its cars to offset the effects of rising costs and a weakening of the Indian Rupee against the US Dollar.
The reasons given by Hyundai were also the same – rising input costs and fluctuating Foreign Exchange rates. Hyundai sells nine different types of models with a price ranging from Rs. 3.10 lakh to Rs. 30.41 lakh.
Hyundai Motor India Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Rakesh Srivastava, in a statement, said that the price rise will be around Rs. 30,000 and will come into effect from January 2016 on all its models including Elite and Creta.
Another automobile manufacturer, Mercedes-Benz India announced that it will also increase the price tags of all its models in the country by 2% from January. German car maker, BMW has also indicated that it will hike the prices of all its models in India by 3%.
Other car makers like Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM), the Indian arm of Toyota Motor Corporation have also announced that they will be hiking the price of their vehicles to offset rising input costs.
However, experts feel that it is a ploy by carmakers to make such announcements at the end of the year to boost sales and clear the stocks especially after the festival offers and discounts.
