The Indian unit of the Italian car maker Fiat has announced to hike prices of its India portfolio cars by up to 2 percent from the month of January 2012. The company has blamed the rising input material costs for this hike. The India portfolio models of Fiat including hatchback Punto and sedan Linea, will become costlier by up to 2 percent from 1st of January 2012.
In a statement, Fiat India’s spokesman said, "We are going to increase prices of Linea and Punto by two per cent with effect from January 1." The company spokesman added that the increasing input material cost have impacted company’s margins in past few months. Moreover, the weakening Indian rupee against the US Dollar has further put the profit margins of the car maker under immense pressure.
Fiat Punto is a premium hatchback which was launched in the country about a year back and the car is competing with the likes of Hyundai i20, Skoda Fabia, Maruti Swift and Ford Figo. Fiat Linea is on the other hand, a competitive sedan which is competing with the likes of Honda City, Volkswagen Vento, Ford Fiesta, Nissan Sunny and Skoda Rapid.
With this hike, Fiat has joined the league of a number of other car makers in the country who have already announced to increase the prices of their car models in the Indian market including Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hyundai, Toyota and General Motors.
