Planning to buy a Tata or Kia? Prices set to rise from April 2025

Automobile manufacturers Tata Motors and Kia on Tuesday announced that they will increase prices across their passenger vehicle (PV) portfolio, effective from April 2025, making it the second such price rise this calendar year by the two carmakers.

 

The price adjustments are being undertaken to partially offset the impact of rising input costs.

 

This follows Maruti Suzuki India’s announcement of increasing its car prices by 4 per cent from April 2025, citing rising input costs and operational expenses as key drivers.

 

While Tata Motors did not reveal the quantum of increase, the price hike will be implemented on their electric vehicle range along with PVs. This will be their second such price hike as the first increase of 3 per cent came in January 2025.

   

Similarly, Kia India announced a price hike of up to 3 per cent across its entire line-up, effective from April 1, 2025. Kia attributed the decision to rising commodity prices and escalating supply chain costs.

 

Tata Motors sold 4,18,991 PV units during the first 9 months of FY25 (April to December). Kia, on the other hand, recorded sales of 2,29,682 PVs during the first 11 months of FY25, and it aims to sell 300,000 vehicles by the end of this financial year, according to data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

 

Speaking on the price hike, Hardeep Singh Brar, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Kia India said, “Due to the rising costs of commodities and input materials, we will be increasing prices. While we understand that price adjustments can be challenging, this decision has been made to ensure we can continue delivering the high-quality, technologically advanced vehicles that our customers expect from Kia.”

 

The price hikes come at a time when the Indian passenger vehicle market is already under pressure. According to data from the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA), PV sales in February 2025 declined by 10.34 per cent year-on-year, reaching 3,03,398 units.

 

Experts warn that these consecutive price hikes could further dampen demand in an already sluggish market.

 

“Price hikes, while somewhat inevitable due to global factors like rising oil prices and geopolitical tensions, definitely risk dampening demand, especially considering the recent decline,” said CS Vigneshwar, President of FADA.

 

“Manufacturers need to prioritise efficiency in production and carefully manage inventory to mitigate the impact. It’s also a good time for customers to make purchase decisions before further potential increases. With Maruti announcing a 4 per cent price hike and Tata following suit with increases in the electric and passenger vehicle segments, we expect more hikes from other manufacturers as well,” Vigneshwar added.

 

Experts have also noted that the supply chain for PVs has largely stabilised, making the rising input costs somewhat surprising.

 

Analysts believe that the PV segment’s modest 1.3 per cent growth forecast for 2025 indicates that achieving higher growth will depend more on new model launches and innovative product offerings rather than price hikes.