Following others, auto major Mahindra & Mahindra today said it will increase the prices of its recently launched international car XUV500 by at least Rs 30,000 from January 1 on the back of higher raw material costs and the rupee fall.
“The price rise has been necessitated as the launch price was an invitation price and there has also been a considerable impact of increase in raw material costs and the rupee depreciation with respect to the dollar and the euro,” the company said in a statement here.
“However, as a special case, for all the current bookings, for which delivery has not been made and in spite of the terms of price applicable at the time of delivery, the increase would only be 50 per cent of the actual price increase proposed, the company said.
While the base model will be dearer by Rs 30,000, the four-wheel drive variant will cost as much as Rs 50,000 more and the higher W8-AWD model will be dearer by Rs 55,000.
All the prices are with reference to ex-showroom, Delhi.
Earlier, other auto majors such as Toyota, Hyundai, Ford and GM had announced price hike of up to 3 per cent from the next month to offset the rise in input costs. Industry leader Maruti is yet to announce a price increase.
The SUV, priced Rs 10.8-11.95 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi), was launched on September 29 and booking began on October 1. The demand has been so high that the company had to suspend booking till January from October 10. It has an order backlog of over 8,000 units.