Maruti Suzuki to hike prices of cars from July due to rise in production costs

Maruti Suzuki is all set to increase prices of its vehicles from July. India's largest car manufacturer issued a statement today confirming price revision of its vehicles. The price rise will impact various models in its lineup. However, the carmaker has not specified the rate of these hikes to be implemented next month.

Maruti Suzuki blames rising input costs, or the cost incurred by the carmaker to produce each vehicles, as the reason behind its decision. The statement issued by Maruti Suzuki in a regulatory filing today says, ""This is to inform you that over the past year the cost of the company's vehicles continues to be adversely impacted due to an increase in various input costs. Hence, it has become imperative for the Company to pass on some impact of the above additional cost to customers through a price rise."

This will be the second set of price hikes for Maruti cars this year. The last time the carmaker undertook mass price hike was back in April. Maruti said, "The price rise has been planned in quarter 2 and the increase shall vary for different models," without clarifying which models will be affected by this decision.

Maruti Suzuki currently offers 14 models across the country. Only five of these models are sold through its premium retail outlet - the Nexa showrooms.

The price hike, to be effective from July, will be the third this year for Maruti Suzuki. Before April, when Maruti was forced to increase car prices due to similar reasons, the carmaker had implemented another hike in January. Back then, the prices of Maruti cars were hiked by up to ₹34,000.

Maruti Suzuki continues to be the largest carmaker in India despite Covid-19 pandemic and supply issues have handicapped most manufacturers across the country. Last month, Maruti sold 32,903 units of passenger vehicles, which was a rise of more than 140 per cent compared to May last year, when the carmaker sold 13,702 units.

Yet, the sales figures in May, which was largely affected by lockdown restrictions in several states across the country, was far less than what it does usually. In April this year, before the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic put a halt on business, Maruti had sold 1,35,879 units, more than one lakh units compared to last month. Maruti hopes that things will pick up from July, and some semblance of normalcy will return in terms of sales figures.