Honda to up prices from Apr 1; Ford, GM may follow

Leading car-makers, worried over rising input costs are expected to take a call on whether to hike their product prices by end-this month, even as Honda Siel Cars India today said that it would up its prices by 2-3% from April 1.

The Japanese multi-national said it would hike the prices of all its products, except the luxury sedan Accord, by 2-3% beginning April 1 on account of rising input costs.

Other car-makers, also impacted by the continuous rise in raw material prices, said they are mulling a price hike but would take a call on the matter by end-this month.

Ford India said that increasing input costs in recent months is worrying the company.

"Surging raw material costs is worrying us and it is now the biggest concern for almost all auto-majors in the country," Ford India's President and Managing Director, Michael Boneham, told PTI here.

"We have not decided anything yet (on hiking its car prices)...We will review the situation by end-this month," he said.

Ford has invested USD 500-million at its Chennai facility, doubling car production to 2-lakh units annually and to build a new engine with a capacity of 2.5-lakh units per year.