Carmakers to increase prices in January 2024

From January 2024, car buyers will have to pay more for their vehicles, as  four automakers have given plans to increase prices on the back of cost pressures and inflation. 

MSIL 

The country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki plans to increase the prices of its cars in January 2024, on account of increased cost pressure driven by overall inflation and increased commodity prices. 

In an exchange notification it said, "While the company makes maximum efforts to reduce cost and offset the increase, it may have to pass on some increase to the market."  

The price increase shall vary across models, the notification further stated. 

In January 2023, the company had said that it hiked prices of its vehicles across models by about 1.1 percent.

Audi India

Audi India has also announced a price increase of up to 2% across its model range due to rising input and operational costs, today. The price hike will be effective from January 1, 2024. 

Balbir Singh Dhillon, Head of Audi India said, "Achieving profitability through a sustainable business model remains a critical part of Audi India’s strategy, and we are committed to providing the best to our customers. Due to rising supply-chain-related input and operational costs, we have effected a price correction across our model range, maintaining the brand’s premium price positioning. The price correction aims to ensure sustainable growth for Audi India and our dealer partners, and we will ensure that the price hike's impact is as minimal as possible for customers.”

In the first nine months of CY2023, Audi India has recorded 88% growth with retail sales of 5,530 units. The brand currently has the widest EV portfolio in the segment. The company’s pre-owned car business – Audi Approved: plus – has witnessed a growth of 63% in the January to September 2023 period.

M&M

Nalinikanth Gollagunta, CEO, Automotive Division, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd said, “Based on the inflation and commodity prices outlook, we intend to take a price increase for our automotive products effective January 2024. The details for which will be announced closer to the time”.

Sitting on 2.86 lakh units of order book and with the new launches planned for 2024, Mahindra & Mahindra is looking at ramping up capacity beyond 49,000 units a month, and it aims to reach this target by March 2024. 

Over the next 12 months, Mahindra is likely to introduce an updated version of the XUV 400, a facelifted XUV 300, and the Five door Thar, which may call for a higher output, given the sustained booking momentum, despite higher output. The booking numbers continue to outpace the deliveries that the company has been able achieve in recent months. 

While the company did not share the specific quantum of capacity increase, the monthly production plan may further increase by a minimum of 10 percent in the next financial year to about 55,000 units a month.  

The company has more than doubled its output in the last few years to cater to the strong order offtake for its new range of SUVs - Thar, XUV 700 and Scorpio in the marketplace. M&M had committed an investment of close to Rs 10,000 crore in the last three-year cycle from FY21 to FY24.  

What's more, Mahindra & Mahindra continues to sustain a strong demand momentum for its brand and has been garnering an average of 51,000 units booking every month over the last few months.

As of 1 November 2023, Mahindra had an open booking of 10,000 units of XUV300 and XUV 400, 70,000 units of XUV 700, 76,000 units of Thar, 11,000 units of Bolero, and 1,19,000 bookings of Scorpio N, including the Classic.

Tata Motors 

"We are considering a price hike across our passenger and electric vehicles in January 2024. The extent of the hike and exact details will be announced in few weeks," a Tata Motors' spokesperson said. 

Tata Motors, India’s largest electric car and SUV manufacturer in the first six months of FY2024, sold 37,961 units, which constitutes a strong 77% year-on-year growth (April-September 2022: 21,487 units). For the first nine months of CY2023, Tata Motors' total EV sales are 53,921 units, up 76 percent YoY (January-September 2022: 38,055 units).