Tata Motors is mulling price hike of its models Tata Indica and Tata Indigo Manza. There has been an official circular within the company stating that the company may increase prices of two of its models from October 01, 2010. However, there is no official statement from Tata Motors to the press and the official spokesperson also declined to confirm the news. The expected price hike is about 2% on various variants of both models which is assumed to be insignificant owing to the boom in the Indian auto market.
Booming markets are often a great time for auto makers to hike prices of their models citing rise in input costs as one of the most acceptable reasons. This does hold partially true as auto makers absorb the costs when market sales are low. Recently, Hyundai has hiked prices of its best selling models including Santro, i10, i20 and Sonata with effect from September 01 and this has not really affected sales to a large extent.
Maruti has also hiked prices of its models earlier in August when its popular models like Maruti Alto went pricier by Rs. 7500. Maruti has nevertheless continued to register steady growth and highest ever sales in August 2010. It has also kept market up-beat with models like new Alto K10.
