General Motors India Private Limited (GMIPL), the country's fifth largest automobile manufacturer, has declared that it will hike retail costs of its entire fleet by up to 3 per cent from January 2013. The announcement came on Thursday, December 6, 2012, with the American auto major claiming ever increasing input costs and fluctuations in value of INR, being the prime reasons behind the hike.
Informing about raise in prices of the company's Indian product portfolio, P. Balendran, Vice President (VP), General Motors India, said in a statement, "We will increase product prices in January 2013 across all carlines ranging from 1-3 per cent, depending upon models.” The VP highlighted that the hike was imminent as the company had to do something about curtailing losses emerging from rising input costs and INR fluctuations.
The American auto major has a very diverse product portfolio in the country, comprising the likes of entry-level Spark hatch, Beat hatch, Sail U-VA, Cruze premium luxury saloon along with utility vehicles like Tavera and Captiva. The cheapest model is Spark that is offered to Indian consumers at Rs. 3.20 lakhs, while Captiva is the most expensive with a Rs. 25 lakhs price tag.
The latest move by General Motors India makes it the third major car maker operating in the country, to have announced similar hike decisions. Evidently, Maruti Suzuki has also announced to increase prices of its popular models by up to Rs. 20,000, while Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) is also revising its vehicle prices by 1 to 2 per cent.
