Hyundai latest carmaker to announce price hikes

Hyundai Motor India Ltd today said it would hike prices by up to Rs20,000 from 1 October across all models except the newly-launched compact car Grand i10, to offset the impact of the rupee depreciation and rising input costs.

"We will be increasing the prices from October 1 by Rs4,000 to Rs20,000 across models except the Hyundai Grand which has been recently launched at an aggressive introductory price," HMIL senior vice president, sales and marketing, Rakesh Srivastava said in a statement from New Delhi.

Elaborating the reasons for the price hike, he said, "The rupee depreciation and inflationary trends have impacted our input costs. We have been absorbing most of the costs but now we are compelled to consider the price increase."

The South Korean carmaker sells a range of vehicles in India starting from the entry level compact car Eon to high-end sports utility vehicle Santa Fe.

While the Eon costs between Rs2.85 lakh and Rs3.91 lakh in Delhi, the Santa Fe is priced at Rs23.40 lakh to Rs 26.49 lakh.

On Tuesday, Toyota Kirloskar Motor had announced it would hike prices of key models by up to Rs24,000 with effect from 21 September to partly offset higher cost of raw materials and rupee depreciation.

Earlier this month, Ford India had hiked prices by 1-5 per cent on different models with immediate effect to offset rising input costs.

Last month, German luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz had hiked prices of its entire range in India by up to 4.5 per cent from 1 September to partly offset impact of rupee depreciation and higher import duties.

General Motors India had also hiked the price of its three models by up to Rs10,000 from the first week of September.

Earlier, BMW group had raised the price of its products across models, including the Mini, by up to 5 per cent. In July, Audi had also hiked prices across its models in India by up to 4 per cent.

Although the rupee has recovered some ground against the dollar in the past few days, it has depreciated for a prolonged period. It has  weakened over 17 per cent against the dollar since April, pushing up import and input costs.