Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai to hike car prices from January

Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai have joined Mercedes, BMW, Audi and Honda, announcing a hike in prices of their cars from January.

Maruti Suzuki, the country’s largest car manufacturer, sells a range of vehicles, from M800 to Grand Vitara, priced between Rs 2.13 lakh and to Rs 24.6 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).

“Maruti Suzuki will increase prices from January 2014 as input costs have been going up and we cannot continue to absorb all of it. We will pass on some part of it to the customers,” Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) COO (Marketing and Sales) Mayank Pareek said.

The company had earlier announced that it would increase prices of the entire range of models by up to Rs 10,000 from October first week, mainly due to depreciation of the rupee.

Hyundai Motor India also said it is looking to take a similar step from next month to offset rising input costs.

“We will be increasing the prices from January due to the rising input costs and current market conditions,” HMIL Senior Vice President and Division head (Marketing & Sales) Rakesh Srivastava said.

Hyundai markets car models priced between Rs 2.89 lakh and Rs 26.69 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).

The price hike will be across the entire product portfolio, Srivastava said.

Earlier in the day, German luxury car maker Mercedes Benz also announced that it will hike prices of its products across models by up to 10 per cent in India from next month.

While the company did not specify the reason for the price increase, its rivals BMW and Audi have already said they would hike prices from January onwards owing to pressure on their business due to economic factors.

Mercedes Benz sells a range of luxury cars and sports utility vehicles in India, including compact cars A Class and B class, sedans C Class, E Class and S Class and sports car SLS AMG, priced between Rs 22 lakh and Rs 3 crore.

Earlier this week, Honda Cars India (HCIL) said it also planned to hike prices of its entire product range from the first week of January to partially offset impact of adverse exchange rate and inflation.