Car News in India

The country’s leading passenger car maker Maruti Suzuki has said that it would raise prices of its existing models across segments shortly.

“This move is necessitated due to spiralling commodity prices, especially of steel and copper,” said S N Burman, the company's commercial business head for east India, on the sidelines of the launch of multi-purpose model Eeco.

Maintaining that prices of copper and steel have shot up by almost 50 percent, he said: “The price rise will happen in a couple of weeks.”

He, however, did not specify the quantum of price rise. The company had last hiked prices last January, by about 1-2 percent.

Eeco is powered by a 1,200cc petrol engine, which is compliant with Bharat Stage IV (BS-IV) emission norms, set by the Indian government to reduce the harmful effect of automobile emissions.

The Eeco model comes with seven-seater and five-seater options. The first, which is non air-conditioned, is priced at Rs 2.83 lakh while the five-seater air-conditioned model will cost Rs 2.97 lakh.

Among other plans, Burman said the company's Alto and Omni models will be upgraded to be BS IV compliant from April 1.