Car prices to rise on higher input costs – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Cars will get dearer from the new year as companies, ranging from Maruti, Tata Motors to Mercedes and Audi, will increase prices due to higher input costs.
The fresh increments will be part of a series of hikes that customers have faced over the past year with hardening of commodity prices and shortage of semiconductors, as well as expensive shipping tariffs.
And, heavy waiting lists (ranging up to six months) across models due to the semiconductor crunch are adding to woes as customers may have to shell out more at the time of delivery against what they had booked the vehicle for.
“Over the past year, the cost of the company’s vehicles continues to be adversely impacted due to increase in various input costs. Therefore, it has become imperative for the company to pass on some impact of the above additional costs to customers through a price hike,” Maruti said.
This year, the company hiked vehicle prices on three occasions — by 1.4% in January, 1.6% in April, and 1.9% in September, taking the total quantum to 4.9%.
The company said it was not able to fully pass on the higher costs as it would have impacted demand.
Hyundai and Tata Motors are also planning to hike prices. Sources in Hyundai said that a price hike in January is “unavoidable” and added that “work is on to identify the models and variants where revisions will be made.”
Shailesh Chandra, president of passenger vehicles division at Tata Motors, said: “Prices of commodities, raw material and other input costs continue to rise. An appropriate price hike to at least partially offset this increase in costs seems inevitable in the near-to short-term.”
Mercedes-Benz India MD Martin Schwenk said the company has been “absorbing a significant part of the input cost increase” while passing on a “minor portion” to the consumers to offset rising operational costs. The company said while prices go up from January, those buying this month will get a “full price protection” against revisions.
Audi’s vehicles will see 3% hike. “To offset rising input and operational costs, a price correction is necessary,” Audi India head Balbir Singh Dhillon said.