Volkswagen Passengers Car India is likely go in for another price hike on select few models by 3% from May following a rise in raw material cost coupled with increase in fuel prices, said a top official.
“We have been facing semiconductor chip shortage for the last one-and-a half years, which was already constraining the supply-line demand,” said Ashish Gupta, brand director, Volkswagen Passenger Cars India.
“Now, coupled with an uptake in demand, it has been a tough time to balance our supply and that will continue for next six months at least.”
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Asserting that the raw material prices had risen by 6-8% and the prices of steel and most precious metals were still at all- time high, he said this had put enormous pressure on input cost. The company will pass on the cost to customers during May.
Mr. Gupta said that though there was some respite from semiconductor chip shortage in January and February, he foresaw shortage of chips along with some critical components in the coming months. This would lead to removal of certain infotainment features in premium cars.
Some of the kits for assembly of components for premium cars comes from Europe. Given the situation in Europe, this has put pressure on production of premium cars. This will have cascading effect. These are some of the things that are upcoming and we are trying to minimise the impact by finding alternative source, he said.
While announcing the good response for its new product Virtus, he also said that the company would be phasing out Vento and Polo as it was moving towards newer technologies.
Product innovation, development and lifecycle management is a continuous process and we will now be focusing on newer segments and body styles that cater to the evolving requirements of our customers, he said.
During 2022, the company plans to sell 60,000 cars in the domestic market and export 40,000 units.
To celebrate 12 years of the premium hatchback car Polo in India, the company announced the introduction of limited Polo ‘Legend’ edition.
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