Volkswagen India to hike vehicle prices by up to 3% from January

Volkswagen said that the price hike is due to the rising input costs followed by a depreciating rupee.

Mumbai: Volkswagen India on Friday announced an upward revision of up to 3 percent in the prices of its product range with effect from January 2019.

“Following the dynamic changes within the economy and rising input costs followed by a depreciating rupee, there has been a foreseen requirement to increase prices in the passenger vehicle segment,” a company statement said.

“Over the last few months, we have been facing several fluctuations within the economy particularly the rise in input costs,” Steffen Knapp, Director, Volkswagen Passenger Cars said.

“At Volkswagen, we have tried our best to absorb the increasing costs but in order to maintain quality standards that a Volkswagen customer expects, this is an essential move. A diminutive percentage increase will assist the company in restoring equilibrium for the upcoming months,”  he added.

Last month, Volkswagen announced management restructuring in India, appointing Škoda Auto India Managing Director (MD) Gurpratap Boparai as the MD of the Volkswagen India Pvt Ltd (VWIPL) with effect from January 1, 2019.

In July this year, the group had announced EUR 1-billion investment in India to support its 'India 2.0' project, which will be driven by Škoda Auto.

The group had announced that all future models designed and produced in India would be based on Volkswagen Group's MQB platform, and Škoda Auto will launch a volume segment model based on sub-compact MQB A0 platform by 2020.

The group will launch a new SUV based on VW's flexible MQB platform by the second half of 2020.

With PTI Inputs