The country’s largest vehicle maker Tata Motors is understood to have decided to hike the price of all of its passenger portfolio models (except Nano and Aria) by up to 1.5%, starting from January next year. As per the industry sources, the company has planned a price hike in the range of 1 to 1.5 percent and planning to implement the same from 1st of January 2011. The company has blamed the upward shooting raw material rates for this hike.
The Tata cars portfolio of models which will be included in this hike are Indica, Indica Vista, Indigo, Indigo Manza, Grande Sumo and Safari. Though the company has indicated that there will be a price hike an official announcement on this regard is yet to be made.
It is also speculated that the price of Tata’s cheapest car Nano and recently unveiled crossover Aria will not be increased. Tata Nano is currently posting its worst ever sales figures (only 509 in Nov 2010) and the company is aggressively working on salvaging its small creation. Thus, a hike in Nano’s price will only make things worse for it. On the other hand, Tata Aria has recently been launched in the Indian market and it has yet to strengthen its grounds, here. Thus, Tata would not be considering a hike in its price.
On the same day, Volkswagen India announced a hike of 2.9 percent in the price of its compact hatchback Polo. The prospective increase in the price of Polo will be applied from 1st January, 2011.
Earlier this month, leading car makers in the country including General Motors India, Hyundai India had announced to hike the price of their respective portfolio cars in the Indian market. Domestic auto giant Maruti Suzuki has also announced to increase the price of its cars in India from January next year, the company however, hasn’t disclosed the size of this prospective price hike.
