Maruti hikes Price of Nation's Favorite Family Cars

BENGALURU: India’s largest passenger car company, Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) has hiked its vehicle price by up to Rs. 20,000 on all models. The latest price revision was based on different aspects like forex movements, segment-wise demand, and the company strategy, as reported by Business Insider India.

The recent hike in price has come in effect from August 1, 2016 on select price range of vehicle with the rise being anywhere from Rs. 1,500 to Rs. 20,000. Vitara Brezza—the latest SUV model from MSIL has been priced with a hike of Rs. 20,000 and the premium hatchback Baleno will now cost Rs. 10,000 more to customers. The price hike is Maruti’s third this year to balance the adverse effect of foreign exchange movement on its pricing. The last hike was noted in March, 2016 when the firm raised the cost of its vehicles by up to Rs. 34,494 equalizing the impact of infrastructure cost, proposed in the Union Budget of 2016-2017.

This move by the nation’s largest automobile firm comes after Hyundai Motors raised the price of its vehicles by Rs. 4,000 to Rs. 30,000. The other automobile giants who are expected to raise the prices of their vehicles this year are Honda Motors, Nissan Motors, Toyota Motor, Renault, Audi, and BMW. According to industry experts, the gross margins across the listed automotive companies in India have expanded between three to four percent compared to last year. Companies like Maruti and Mahindra & Mahindra is facing near-decade high gross margins with 27 percent and 33 percent increase respectively. 

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