Car prices set to increase from July over new safety standards
Mahindra, Maruti Suzukiand Honda have all said they would increase the prices of their vehicles across segments.
Automobile maker Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) on Wednesday announced it would hike prices of all its passenger vehicles from July 1. Other auto makers, like Maruti Suzuki and Honda, had earlier announced that they too would be hiking their rates. The price increase is intended to reflect the increase in costs due to the implementation of the AIS 145 safety norms.
The rise in costs because of AIS 145 safety norms is because it makes it mandatory for auto makers to fit several safety features, including driver airbags, seat-belt reminders for the driver and non-driver, rear parking sensors and an over-speed alert for the driver across all passenger vehicle models.
Honda is expected to raise prices by 1.2%, while Maruti indicated its hikes could be between Rs15,000 to 20,000.
Mahindra has said said it would hike prices for all its models by up to Rs 36,000. In a statement, M&M said, “This price increase is due to the implementation of AIS 145 norms across all the passenger vehicles in India.” The SUVs model that is going to witness a significant hike in price are Scorpio, Bolero, TUV300 and KUV100 NXT, whereas, brands like XUV500 and Marazzo will see a marginal price increase.
“At Mahindra, safety has been at the core of our product development process and we welcome the regulatory requirements relating to safety upgrades. However, the safety regulatory requirement has led to some cost increases. Consequently, we are taking a price hike across some of our passenger vehicles, effective July 1, 2019,” said Rajan Wadhera, M&M President-Automotive Sector, Rajan Wadhera.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had issued a notification on December 7, 2017, and informed the automobile industry to comply with the additional safety features stipulated in Automotive Industry Standard (AIS) 145 - 2017.