Maruti Suzuki hikes prices across its passenger vehicle range by up to 1.9 percent

Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest carmaker, has announced an increase in prices of its entire passenger vehicle portfolio, barring the Celerio, by as much as 1.9 percent with immediate effect. In a regulatory filing, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) said it has taken the decision to hike prices across its model line due to a steady rise in manufacturing input costs. This price rise is the third such hike MSI has rolled out in 2021 – the carmaker earlier raised prices in January and April this year, totalling up to an overall hike of around 3.5 percent. The latest price hike ranges from Rs 7,500 to Rs 22,500, depending on the model. Last month, MSI said a price hike was necessary in order to protect its profitability amid a steep rise in commodity prices. MSI Senior Executive Director (Sales and Marketing) Shashank Srivastava had said there was no other option left for the company, but to increase prices to offset the impact of high commodity costs. He had said that steel prices have gone up from Rs 38 per kg last year to Rs 65 per kg in May-June this year. Similarly, copper prices have doubled from USD 5,200 per tonne to USD 10,000 per tonne. In the case of precious metals, the overall demand has gone up in various global markets and India due to the transition to stricter emission norms. Srivastava had said that the prices of precious metals like rhodium have increased from Rs 18,000 a gram in May 2020 to almost Rs 64,300 a gram in July. Maruti Suzuki was in the news late last week, when it announced a recall for over 1.81 lakh vehicles to replace a potentially faulty motor generator unit (MGU) – one of the biggest voluntary recalls in the country. The company is also gearing up to launch the second-generation Maruti Suzuki Celerio in the coming months. With inputs from PTI