With Tata Motors on Saturday announcing hike in its car prices, the New Year could bring in more surprises for car buyers as other major carmakers may also make a similar move due to rising input costs.
With effect from January 1, 2011, the price increase in passenger cars is on the Tata Indica and the Tata Indigo family and in the approximate range of Rs.3000-15,000. In the utility car segment, the hike would be on Tata Sumo, Tata Grande MK II, Tata Safari and Tata Xenon in the range of Rs.8,700-14,500, Tata Motors said in a statement.
Rising input costs
Similarly, the company has decided to increase prices of its commercial vehicles in the range of Rs.1,500-30,000 in which it is the market leader. The company said the hike was in the light of increase in input costs, particularly that of commodities.
Rising input costs can also force other car manufacturers like Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai Motor India, Ford India and General Motors to increase prices of their vehicles. The input costs include cost of materials like natural rubber, pig iron, rolled steel and metals such as aluminium and copper.
In the last six months, prices of natural rubber have risen by 40 per cent while that of pig iron by 25 per cent. Hot rolled steel prices are up 22 per cent and prices of forging steel jumped by 10 per cent. Costs of aluminium and copper also witnessed increases by 4 per cent and 3 per cent, respectively.
