Toyota Kirloskar Motor announces price hike, effective from April 2021

Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) has taken the same route as Maruti Suzuki and Renault India. The Indian subsidiary of the Japanese auto manufacturer has announced a price hike for its vehicles that will be effective from April 2021.

Prices of the cars will be increased depending on the models and variants. The price hike is necessitated in an attempt to offset the substantial increase in input costs, the automaker has claimed.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor has said in a statement that it has been compelled to announce the price hike. "During such testing times, it has been our endeavour to absorb cost increases through our internal efforts, and only a minimal portion will be reflected onto the prices," the automaker said.

Maruti Suzuki and Renault India have already announced price hikes for their vehicles a couple of weeks ago in order to offset the price increase of key raw materials and metals that are used in manufacturing vehicles.

In recent times, prices of key metals used in vehicles manufacturing, including steel, aluminium have increased substantially. This has led to the increased production cost for auto companies, resulting in the price hike announcements.

Not only car manufacturers, but the two-wheelers too have been taking the same route. Hero MotoCorp, the largest two-wheeler manufacturer in the world have also announced a price hike. Expect the other car manufacturers and two-wheeler brands too announce prices hikes for their products in the coming days.

Such a price hike could lead to increased acquisition cost for the vehicles. This will result in an impact on demand. The demand for vehicles in the Indian auto market is already witnessing major pressure due to the hike in fuel prices. Petrol and diesel prices have already shot to a new high in India, crossing ₹100 per litre and ₹90 a litre, respectively.