The country’s largest automaker – Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) recently declared in a regulatory filing that it will raise prices across its range of offerings in January 2023 in order to cope with the increasing input costs as well as to incorporate the cost of making its vehicles pass the upcoming stricter safety regulation norms. The automaker hasn’t clarified how much will the price hike vary from model to model and their respective variants.
“The Company continues to witness increased cost pressure driven by overall inflation and recent regulatory requirements. While the company makes the maximum effort to reduce costs and partially offset the increase, it has become imperative to pass on some of the impacts through a price increase. The company has planned this price increase in January 2023 which shall vary across models”, Maruti Suzuki said in the regulatory filing.
Why the price hike?
The outgoing pandemic has resulted in rapid inflation in prices as well as caused supply chain disruptions driving up the costs even further. Even though OEMs are trying to keep the product costs in check by bearing some of the impacts, there’s more. As the government’s regulation of safety systems like three-point seatbelts & seatbelt reminders for all front-facing seats is set to be implemented from the 1st of April 2023, it will require the manufacturers to put in more money to make the necessary upgrades to their vehicles so that they meet the regulations.
Previous price hikes by MSIL
The brand had hiked prices earlier this year in the months of January and April when its entry-level and mid-range cars became costlier by up to Rs. 30,000 while popular models like the Swift, Baleno, Alto, Ertiga, etc. saw an increase in prices by around Rs. 22,000 respectively.
The company has been upgrading its complete portfolio by launching new generations, facelifts, and updates of its models while also expanding its factory-fitted ‘S-CNG’ lineup owing to the increased petrol & diesel prices. The brand recently inaugurated its 3,500th sales outlet – a Nexa dealership in Hyderabad. With this, the automaker crossed the milestone of having 3,500sales outlets throughout the country