Wednesday, December 07, 2011
By Pranjal Gera
Toyota car prices to increase by 3 percent from January 2012
Toyota Kirloskar Motors, the Indian subsidiary of the Japanese auto giant Toyota Motors, has decided to hike the price of its cars across all portfolio models that are produced locally by up to 3 percent. This is the highest percent hike in this calendar year. The company has take the decision of increasing the car prices due to shrinking margins due to weakening Indian rupees in the global market. The company will increase the prices by 1.5 to 3 percent from January 2012.
While announcing the price hike, Sandeep Singh, Deputy Managing Director (Marketing) at Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM), said that the company has been absorbing the pressure of weakening rupee for the last three months. He added that now the company has decided to pass on some burden to the new buyers.
However, the company hasn’t disclosed the price hike it is going to make on its particular models, as it will take a call on finalizing the new rates by the third week of this month. The company has, however, revealed that its luxury sports utility vehicle Fortuner will go expensive by up to Rs 50,000 from next month.
This is the fourth price hike by TKM in the Indian market in this calendar year, as it has already increased the prices of its car in April, July and October. However, while the earlier price hikes were in the range of 1.5 to 2 percent, this time around the company was forced to incorporate one of the steepest hikes of recent times of 3 percent.
The current product portfolio of Toyota in the Indian market includes compact hatchback Toyota Etios Liva, entry level sedan Toyota Etios, multi utility vehicle Toyota Innova, premium sedan Corolla Altis, luxury sedan Toyota Camry, sports utility vehicle Toyota Fortuner.
