With fuel rates at an all-time high, the car buying scene seems to be getting more difficult for Indian customers. Various factors have led car manufacturers to hike the prices of cars in their line-up. Some of the reasons for the hike as cited by most manufacturers have been the increase in commodity rates and the customs duty on goods. Here’s a look at the models that have got a bump in their price tags.
Maruti Suzuki
India’s largest car manufacturer has increased the prices of its vehicles by up to Rs 6,100. The reason for this hike has been the increase in commodity and distribution costs and adverse foreign exchange rates.
Rising fuel prices have also added to the logistics cost, which in turn have also been a contributor for the price hike.
Honda
Honda cars have received a price hike in the range of Rs 10,000 to Rs 35,000 across all its models. The Honda Amaze, which was recently launched at an introductory price of Rs 5.59 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi), has received a hike of Rs 20,000 on average, across variants. The new starting price has gone up to Rs 5.81 lakh.
Ford
Ford has increased the prices of all the cars in its line-up by 1-3 percent. Factors that have contributed to this are the increase in input costs and exchange rates. The manufacturer believes that increasing the percentage of localisation is a way to counter this hike, and is working to achieve this. However, commodities such as steel and aluminium have also seen a rise in cost, which is also a contributing factor to the price hike.
Tata
Tata Motors also announced that prices of its passenger vehicles have been increased by up to 2.2 percent in order to offset the increased input costs. It is worth noting that this is not the first price increase by the Indian brand this year. Earlier in March this year, Tata had announced a price hike of Rs 60,000 across all models in its line-up.
Mahindra
Mahindra’s passenger vehicles have seen a price bump by up to Rs 30,000 or 2 percent in the month of August. The rising price of commodities has been the sole reason for this hike.
Hyundai
Hyundai hiked the prices of its cars by 2 percent across all the cars in its line-up except for the recently launched facelift of the Creta. Unlike other cars, the Grand i10 prices have increased by up to 3 percent, which has resulted in an increase by about Rs 14,000 to 22,000 depending on the engine option and variant. It is worth noting that Hyundai had hiked the prices at the beginning of this year by 2 percent.
Mercedes-Benz
In the luxury car segment, Mercedes-Benz has also announced that it would hike prices of its vehicles by up to 4 percent from September this year. Mercedes-Benz stated that the rise in inflation due to geo-political dynamics, coupled with rising input costs and increasing forex rates has been exerting significant pressure on overall operations. These factors, along with the depreciation in the value of Rupee against the Euro in the last eight months, have led Mercedes to revise the prices of all the cars in its model line-up.