As the year is drawing to a close, several manufacturers have announced a hike in the price of their vehicles. Previously, Maruti Suzuki had announced that they would be hiking the price of their vehicles from January 2021. Later, Renault, Hyundai and Kia, Volkswagen and even Mahindra announced a price hike on their vehicles effective from January 2021. Now, Skoda too have announced that they will be increasing prices across their model line-up by up to 2.5%. The price revision will be effective on the vehicles from January, 2021.
Skoda's lineup in India currently includes the Rapid sedan, the Octavia RS 254, the Karoq SUV and the Superb sedan. Of these, only the Rapid is locally built here in India. All three other cars either come to India as CKDs or as full imports. Unlike Volkswagen, who only hiked the prices of the locally-made Polo and Vento, Skoda's price hike will be applicable on all four vehicles that the company sells here in India. Earlier in November, VW Group's luxury brand Audi also announced a price hike across its range.
Also Read : Could Slavia Be The Name Of The Next-Gen Skoda Rapid In India?
Skoda Auto India spokesperson said,
"There has been a surge in the cost of our inputs for production due to significant volatility in the global commodity prices and foreign exchange rates in recent times. SKODA AUTO India has been absorbing these incremental costs, all this while, but is now considering a price increase of up to 2.5 per cent with effect from 1st January 2021 across its model range."
Price revisions towards the end of the year have almost become a norm in the automotive industry. Almost every manufacturer marginally increases the price of their vehicles at this time of the year. This price hike comes about due to increasing input costs across the spectrum, including input costs for steel, aluminum, plastics and other affiliated cost increases during the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, prices anyway saw a strong uptick due to the transition to the BS6 norms. The lockdown and the pandemic also caused supply-chain disruptions for components and raw materials, which further contributed the uptick in prices of vehicles.
Going ahead into 2021, both Volkswagen and Skoda will be going into a product offensive strategy. The first model to come out of VW Group's India 2.0 Project will be the production-spec Skoda Vision IN which will then be followed by the Volkswagen Taigun. These two are very important products for both the brands in India. The later half of 2021 will also see the next-gen Vento from Volkswagen and the next-gen Rapid from Skoda in India.
Stay tuned to IndianAutosBlog.com for more Skoda updates and other four-wheeler news.
