Maruti Suzuki to hike car costs from January

The nation’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) on Thursday mentioned it’ll improve car costs from January subsequent yr to offset the impression of the rise in enter prices.
The value improve would fluctuate from mannequin to mannequin, the auto main mentioned, with out sharing the small print.
“Over the past year, the cost of company’s vehicles continue 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,” MSI mentioned in a regulatory submitting.
The value rise has been deliberate for January 2022, and the rise shall fluctuate for various fashions, it added.

The firm sells a variety of fashions, ranging from hatchback Alto to SUV S-Cross, with costs ranging from Rs 3.15 lakh to Rs 12.56 lakh, respectively (ex-showroom, Delhi).
The auto main has already hiked the car costs thrice this yr — by 1.4 per cent in January, 1.6 per cent in April and 1.9 per cent in September, taking the full quantum to 4.9 per cent.
In an interplay with PTI, MSI Senior Executive Director (Marketing and Sales) Shashank Srivastava mentioned the corporate has been pressured to take value hikes, with the rise in costs of important commodities like metal, aluminium, copper, plastic and valuable metals during the last one yr.
“We are witnessing a really big increase in the commodity prices and therefore the company’s material cost, which accounts for around 75-80 per cent of the auto OEMs cost structure, has been impacted,” he famous.
Srivastava mentioned the corporate has been below strain since final yr however averted taking large value hikes as it will have impacted the demand situation available in the market.
“As we took a big hit in profitability, and with commodity prices remaining high, we were left with no other choice but to take corrective actions. This year we have taken a price increase of 4.9 per cent in total, which is actually lower than the impact we are witnessing on account of high commodity prices,” he famous.
For the corporate, a value improve is the final resort, because it doesn’t wish to burden the shoppers, Srivastava mentioned.
“We were thinking that the prices of commodities would soften, but that did not happen. On our end, we reduced our costs, increased efficiencies, but that was not enough, and eventually, we had to take price hikes,” he added.
Elaborating additional, Srivastava mentioned that metal costs final April-May stood at round Rs 38 per kg, which went as much as Rs 77 per kg this yr.
“These are unprecedented highs…metal costs are anticipated to stay excessive…equally plastic prices will proceed to stay excessive.
“Thirdly production of aluminium has gone down in China…as a result the cost which used to be around USD 1,700-1,800 per tonne has gone up to USD 2,700-2,800 per tonne,” he added.
Similarly, costs of copper and valuable metals have gone up significantly, Srivastava famous.
“It is difficult to sustain this level of cost structure, and therefore, we have decided that we will increase the prices in January,” he acknowledged.
Srivastava mentioned that the corporate is presently understanding the quantum of the hike, which might fluctuate from mannequin to mannequin.

“Considering the huge increase in commodity prices, the price hike would be substantial,” he famous.
MSI sells its product vary within the nation from two gross sales networks — Arena and Nexa.