Audi car to be costlier for Indians with 3% rise in prices

Mumbai: Audi India has announced on Thursday that the automobile maker will increase prices of all its models by 3 per cent as the costs of input and operation surge, NDTV Carandbike reports. The price rise will come into effect from January 2022, Audi India- a division of the German automobile manufacturer Audi and Volkswagen Group India- said.

Head of the company, Balbir Singh Dhillon, said that a price correction is imperative to counter the rising input and operational costs. He added that the new price range for their select vehicles would ensure the brand's premium price positioning, thereby assuring sustainable growth for their brand and dealer partners. Audi India, though, made a beneficial year out of 2021. It launched nine new products, including five electric vehicles (EV).

Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz, Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai Motors and Tata Motors have also announced that they will increase their car prices and cited rising input costs as the reason. Times of India reports that the new price rise is another in a series of hikes faced by customers in the past year. The phenomenon is mainly attributed to rising prices of commodities, shortage of semiconductor chips and rise in shipping tariffs. The semiconductor situation is making customers wait for months to get their delivery and are forcing them to pay more than what was estimated at the time of booking.

During this year, Maruti Suzuki has hiked its prices 1.4 per cent in January, 1.6 in April and 1.9 in September, taking the cumulative rise so far to 4.9 per cent. Now it announced another hike next month. Mercedes-Benz justified their price rise that the company is absorbing most of the input costs while only spilling "a minor portion" to the customers. It added that though prices are set to rise next month, customers buying this month will get full price protection against revisions.