Mahindra hikes prices by up to ₹63,000 from April

Auto major Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd has announced a price hike of 2.5% on its range of vehicles. The current hike will result in an increase of ₹10,000 to ₹63,000 on the ex-showroom prices across the range, depending upon the model and the variant, the company said today. The price hike will be effective from April 14, 2022.

The current hike comes just two months after Mahindra raised the prices of its vehicles by up to ₹43,559 in January. Models like Mahindra XUV700, Bolero Neo, Mahindra Thar, Mahindra Scorpio, and Alturas G4 -- all of them saw prices going up on disruption in the supply chain and input costs.

"The price revision is the result of continuous increase in prices of key commodities such as steel, aluminium, palladium, etc. The company has taken necessary initiatives to partially offset the unprecedented hike in commodity prices to absorb the impact, passing a minimal percentage of cost increase to customers through a price revision," M&M said today.

The auto industry, faced with challenges like chip shortage, rising fuel costs and hikes in essential commodities, is going through upheaval in the country. India's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India increased prices across its entire range of models last week. The price will be implemented from this month onwards and will vary for different car models. This was the fifth hike by Maruti in a little over a year.

Maruti has said the cost of the company's vehicles continues to be impacted adversely due to an increase in various input costs, which makes it necessary for it to pass some impact on to customers through a price hike. Maruti had hiked the prices of its vehicles by 8.8% with consecutive revisions from January 2021 to March 2022.

Other carmakers like Tata Motors and Hyundai have already implemented price hikes to offset rising input costs. Tata Motors hiked the price of the commercial range by 2.5% in March after increasing the prices of its passenger vehicles by 0.9% in January 2022.

Hyundai, too, had upped the prices of a range of models, including Venue, Creta and Alcazar, by up to ₹22,000. Hyundai hatchback models saw a hike of up to ₹17,400. Even luxury automotive brands have also joined the queue. Mercedes-Benz has said it'll increase the prices of its models by up to ₹5 lakh in India from April 1.

As the entire auto industry gets impacted, sales are bound to fall. India’s auto industry saw a 6% decline in sales in FY22, the latest Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) data shows. The passenger vehicle segment comprising cars, utility vehicles and vans declined by 3.93% in sales. The overall industry saw a de-growth of 6% in FY22.