Maruti, Hyundai, GM to hike prices

The new year will begin on a costly note for car buyers with major players, including Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai Motors and General Motors,, planning to increase prices by as much as Rs 12,000.

The companies are citing higher costs of raw materials besides rising freight charges as reasons for hiking prices.

According to sources, Maruti Suzuki India has told its distributors to gear up for an increase in prices across all models by up to Rs 12,000. The price hike would be applicable on dispatches of vehicles from the date of announcement of the hike in January.

Maruti officials, when contacted, declined to comment.

Hyundai Motors India is also planning a price hike of up to 2% across different models by December-end or January next year. Hyundai's lowest priced car is the Santro non-AC, which comes for Rs 2.72 lakh, while the high-end Sonata Embera is priced at Rs 15.71 lakh.

Sources said Hyundai may also revise the price of its recently introduced global car i10, which has been priced at Rs 3.39 lakh onward.

While Hyundai officials declined to comment, General Motors India (GMI) confirmed it will be revising prices.

"We will be hiking prices of our products between 1-2% across all models by January," Ankush Arora, vice president (marketing and sales), GMI, said.