Tata Motors, India’s largest commercial vehicle manufacturer, has announced an impending price hike of its commercial vehicle range. An increase in price in the range of 2.5% will be implemented from January 1, 2022 and will cover all CV sub-segments – M&HCV, I&LCV, SCV and buses – depending upon individual model and variant.

In a statement, the company said: “The increase in the prices of commodities such as steel, aluminium and other precious metals, in addition to higher costs of other raw materials has incited this price hike in commercial vehicles. While the company is absorbing a significant portion of the increased costs at various levels of manufacturing, the steep rise in overall input costs makes it imperative to pass on some residual proportion via a minimal price hike.”

For November 2021, Tata Motors reported wholesales of 28,295 units, which marks growth of 8% YoY, but 9% lower compared to October 2021 (31,226 units). Segment-wise, the company saw robust demand for its passenger carriers (buses), thus indicating demand for people movement on the back of offices and schools opening up.

In the first-half of FY2022, Tata Motors sold a total of 120,420 CVs, which marks 98% YoY growth albeit the year-ago market was hugely impacted by the pandemic-induced loss of sales. Given this sales number, the company had an overall CV market share of 44.26% in the April-September 2021 period, up from 36.72 a year ago.

Its M&HCV bus sales rose to 1,186 units from 105 units while that of M&HCV goods carriers jumped 209% to 45,192 units in H1 FY2022 from 14,605 units a year ago, helping increase market share in this segment to 56.62% from 52% a year ago.

LCV bus sales at 2,552 units were more muted in comparison, up 75% YoY. In fact, its market share dropped to 27% from 31.42% a year ago, the gains in this sub-segment being made by Force Motors, which saw its market share rise to 65.62% from 54.29% with sales of 6,224 units.

Tata Motors made much headway in the LCV goods carrier segment with sales of 71,490 units, up 60.69% (April-September 2020: 44,489 units).