ManagementMaruti hikes car prices marginally
Burdened with rising commodity prices, especially of steel and copper, the country’s largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki India, has announced a marginal increase of up to 2 per cent in prices.
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The increase is effective from today. However, prices of the recently-launched Eeco, Swift (petrol) and Gypsy models remain unchanged.
“The price increase varies from 0.12 per cent (Ritz VDi) to 1.90 per cent (Dzire LXi). For the affected models, the average increase in prices is around 0.6 per cent,” said a release from the company.
“The price increase is to partly recover the increase in input costs arising out of raw material costs over the past one year. For some models, the rise in costs is being absorbed by the company in the light of the market situation,” added the release.
Prices of commodities like copper and steel have shot up by almost 50 per cent, making it difficult for car makers to maintain rates. In the past one month, Honda Siel Cars India and BMW have also raised the price of their models.
Till now, the current financial year has seen buoyant car sales because of the stimulus provided by the government. But industry sources say it will be difficult for the industry to continue with the same growth rate if the stimulus is withdrawn.
In addition, it is difficult for them to manage the rising input cost within the same price.
The release also adds that the Swift (Petrol) and Swift Dzire (Petrol) models will now be equipped with the more fuel-efficient, refined and environment-friendly engine and will comply with the more stringent Bharat Stage (BS) -IV fuel norms.
It also says the diesel variants of Swift and Swift Dzire have also been upgraded to meet the BS-III norms.