The Hindu : Business : Hyundai, Maruti to hike prices

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 27, 2005

Business

Business

Hyundai, Maruti to hike prices

Special Correspondent

Accent, Getz to cost more; company plans new model MC-Series

Price rise to take effect from October 1 To raise Getz output

— Photo: Ramesh Sharma

SANIA'S DRIVE: Tennis star, Sania Mirza, chosen the brand ambassador of Hyundai Getz.

NEW DELHI: Hyundai Motor India (HMI) and Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL) on Monday indicated that they would be raising the prices of some of their products from October 1. HMI has also announced the signing up of tennis star, Sania Mirza, as brand ambassador for its Getz model.

Hyundai, which has Shahrukh Khan and Preity Zinta as its brand ambassadors for Santro, hopes that the endorsement of Getz in all Hyundai promotions by Sania during the contract period would help the company push sales, particularly when it is planning to raise the production capacity of the model from 1,400 units a month to 3,400 units by April-June next year.

New model planned

Announcing the signing of Sania as the brand ambassador for Getz, company's President, B. V. R. Subbu, said HMI was also preparing to introduce its new model, MC-Series, to be positioned between mid-sized sedan Accent and top-end model Sonata, by August-September next year. He, however, did not comment on whether the new model would replace the existing model, Elantra, in the class. "We are planning for capacity expansion in a phased manner over a period of six to nine months," he said.

On price hike, Mr. Subbu said, "We will announce a price hike for Accent and Getz before October 1". Accent is likely to cost more by Rs. 7,000-8,000 while the hike in Getz prices would be marginal.

Maruti Udyog simultaneously said it would also follow suit. Though the quantum of hike and the models to which it would apply were yet to be decided, the sources said that in principle the decision had been made to increase the prices of the company's products from October 1.

Justifying the increase in the price of the car on the ground of upward movement of freight rate on account of the recent hike in diesel prices, an official of the company said the company had to pass on some of it to the customers. He said the diesel price hike had led to the truck freight charges going up by 4-5 per cent across the major trunk routes.

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