Maruti car price hike,Hyundai,GE may follow

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL), quietly hiked the prices of all its models, except Grand Vitara, with effect from May 17, the second largest manufacturer, Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL), is likely to hike prices by the month-end. Even players like General Motors India are likely to announce new prices this month. “Maruti’s price increase ranges from Rs 1,000 to Rs 15,000 across different categories. But for our newly launched Swift Dzire, it has gone up by Rs 18,000 as the earlier price was an introductory offer,” says a company official, adding that the increase would have been higher than this had there not been a recent reduction in steel prices. Around a fortnight ago, steel Companies had announced a price reduction of Rs 4,000 per tonne on flat steel, which goes into car manufacture.“Input costs have been rising and Hyundai also plans to increase prices by the end of this month,” said a company official without giving details.
The spokesperson for General Motors India, P Balendran, said, “Though there has been a reduction in the prices of steel, there has been a significant increase in the prices of other raw materials, and this has added to the overall input costs. Also, with the rising cost of fuel, there has been a significant increase in the transportation cost. As a result, we are evaluating the overall impact and would be revising the prices by a little over 1% at the beginning of June.”