As per Maruti, the price increase has been planned due to increase in input costs. Model-wise price hike details aren’t available at the moment, but should be out towards March’21 end/early April’21.
Earlier this year in Jan’21, Maruti had hiked prices of multiple cars in its portfolio. For select models, the prices had gone up by INR 34,000. Back then too, Maruti had justified the price hike due to increased input costs. Updated prices are not yet out.
Maruti isn’t the only OEM which is planning on a second price increase this year. Multiple other manufacturers like Mahindra, Renault etc. have also planned similarly. 2020 was an unprecedented year for most automakers as for almost 2 months, they witnessed 0 sales. That negatively impacted the P&L statements of most automakers.
Additionally, rising input costs and continued supply chain related issues have further squeezed out the margin for automakers. Now that the demand has relatively stabilized, almost 1 year after the start of the pandemic, automakers are now keen to share the load of increased costs with the buyers.
Since past few months, Sales figures have been strong for the largest Indian car manufacturer. In Feb’21, Maruti reported a 11.8% increase in its total sales. In Feb’20, it had sold 1,47,110 units whereas in Feb’21, it could clock sales of 1,64,469 units. Domestic sales too had grown by 11.8%, from 1,36,849 units to 1,52,983 units. Exports had grown by 11.9%, from 10,261 units to 11,486 units.
The latest update from Maruti’s end has been the launch of the facelifted 2021 Swift. The 2021 Swift comes along with a revised grille, an additional chrome slat and a slightly more powerful 1.2 litre petrol engine. Thanks to the update, the starting price of the Swift went up by around INR 50K. Trim-wise price hike averaged around INR 40K.
In other news, Maruti has commenced full fledged production of the Jimny at its Gujrat plant. As of now, Maruti has been using its facility only for production of export-spec Jimny. In the month of Feb’21, Maruti produced and exported 838 units of the 3-door Jimny which it sells internationally.
Speculation suggests that Maruti is contemplating launch of a 5-door Jimny in the Indian market, sometime later in 2022. Recently, a LWB version of the Jimny too was spotted testing, raising the possibility of the launch of the 5-door Jimny.