Shares of the country's largest car maker - Maruti Suzuki - rose as much as 1.68 per cent to hit an intraday high of Rs 7,223 after the company post market hours on Monday said that it will increase car prices starting April on the back of rise in input costs.
"Over the past year the cost of company's vehicles has been impacted adversely due to increase in various input costs.
Hence, it has become imperative for the company to pass on some impact of the above additional cost to customers through a price increase in April, 2021," Maruti Suzuki said in a stock exchange filing.
(Track Maruti Suzuki share price here)In January, Maruti had cited a rise in input costs and said it will hike price up to Rs 34,000 on some car models.Rival Mahindra and Mahindra increased prices of its personal and commercial vehicles by 1.9 per cent, while Tata Motors raised prices for its passenger vehicles by up to Rs 26,000.Last month, Maruti Suzuki launched new version of its popular hatchback car Swift.
The all-new Swift 2021 comes with Next Gen K-Series 1.2 litre dual jet dual VVT engine with idle start stop feature.Auto sector was already seeing weak demand and higher costs when the COVID-19 pandemic dealt a blow last March.Since then, carmakers have seen demand return but have warned about uncertainties ahead.
Several carmakers have increased prices this year to keep up with rising costs.As of 10:45 am, Maruti Suzuki shares traded 1.38 per cent higher at Rs 7,199, outperforming Sensex which was up 0.3 per cent.