Rising commodity costs to push vehicle prices higher from Sep: MSIL

Gurugram: Maruti Suzuki plant, Gurugram. (Photo: Bidesh Manna/IANS)


Automobile major Maruti Suzuki India blamed rising commodity costs for another price hike from September.

Earlier in the calendar year 2021, the automobile major had increased prices in January, April, and July only for the hatchback Swift and all CNG variants.

“Rising commodity prices, especially those of steel, copper, rhodium, and palladium amongst others have left us with no choice but to raise prices across models,” Maruti Suzuki India’s Executive Director, Marketing and Sales, Shashank Srivastava said.

“On an average, the material cost accounts for 70 percent of our overall cost structure.”

According to Srivastava, the company tried not to raise prices to revive demand by cost-cutting and other measures.

“But the continuously rising material cost has left us with no options. The quantum of increase on average will be around 1.4 percent depending on the model.”

“Currently, commodity prices have started to soften up a bit, the industry believes that the material cost will plateau out on these levels and soften more in Q3FY22 and Q4FY22.”

The company had earlier raised prices for different car models in July for only the hatchback Swift and all CNG variants. The increase in ex-showroom prices (Delhi) at that time was up to Rs 15,000.