Tata Motors, Honda, Renault looking to increase vehicle prices from January

Carmakers such as Tata Motors, Honda and Renault are mulling hiking prices of vehicles from January next year given the continuing rise in input costs. Prices of essential commodities such as steel, aluminum, copper, plastic and precious metals have substantially increased over the last one year.

Apart from this, transportation cost has also gone up in recent times which has affected the total cost structures of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

Tata Motors too is looking at increasing prices given the rise in commodity cost. The company's President - Passenger Vehicles Business, Shailesh Chandra, told PTI, "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." Tata Motors sells model such as Punch, Nexon and Harrier in the domestic market.

Honda Cars India is also considering a price hike in the near future given the severe impact on input cost due to commodity prices' increase. "We are still studying how much can be absorbed," a spokesperson from the company told PTI.

Renault stated that it is also looking at a "substantial" price increase across its model range from January. It sells models such as Kwid, Triber and Kiger in the Indian market.

Some carmakers have already announced a hike in vehicle prices from next month such as Maruti Suzuki and luxury automakers Audi and Mercedes-Benz.

Country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki informed that the price hike planned for January 2022 will vary for different models while Mercedes-Benz said its hike will be on select models by up to 2 per cent due to feature enhancement and rising input costs. Audi will increase price up to 3 per cent across its entire model range owing to rising input and operational costs.

(with inputs from PTI)