Tata Motors, the country’s largest commercial vehicle manufacturer, on Tuesday said that the company will be hiking the price of automobiles by up to 5% with effect from April 1. The decision has been taken in line with the company’s efforts to comply with the move to more stringent BS6 Phase II emission norms, the Tata Group company said in a statement.
“As Tata Motors transitions its entire vehicle portfolio to meet these standards, customers and fleet owners can expect a range of cleaner, greener, and technologically superior offerings that deliver higher benefits and lower total cost of ownership. The price increase will be applied across the entire range of commercial vehicles, with the exact amount varying according to the individual model and variant,” the company said.
Following the development, shares of Tata Motors surged 1.4% to hit an intra-day high of ₹418.35 apiece on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The share opened higher at ₹415 as against the closing price of ₹412.40 of the previous session. During the session, the market capitalisation of the company stood at ₹1,37,968 crore with 1,05,682 shares exchanging hands on the BSE as against the two-week average of 3.48 lakh shares. In the past three months, shares of Tata Motors have surged 2.47%. The company hit a 52-week high of ₹494.50 on August 17 last year, whereas it hit a 52-week low of ₹366.05 on May 12 last year.
This is the second time in two months that Tata Motors has hiked the prices. In February, the company hiked the prices by 1.2% across its internal combustion engine (ICE) passenger vehicle portfolio owing to the rise in input costs. Tata Motors had then said that the company has been absorbing a significant portion of the increased costs on account of regulatory changes & rise in overall input costs and is hence passing on some portion through this hike.
During the quarter ended December 31, 2022, the company clocked a net profit of ₹2,957.71 crore as against a loss of ₹1,516.14 crore in the corresponding period of last fiscal. The company’s revenue from operations surged 22.5% YoY at ₹88,488.59 crore during the quarter under review. Tata Motors' passenger vehicle revenue rose 37% year-on-year to around ₹11,700 crore, reflecting higher volumes and realisations.
In February, Tata Motors sold a total of 78,006 units, up 6% year-on-year (YoY) from 73,875 units sold in February 2022. The total sales include 42,862 units of domestic passenger vehicles, including EVs. The PV sales grew 7% YoY as compared to 39,981 PV units sold in February 2022. Besides, the domestic sale of MH&ICV in February 2023, including trucks and buses, stood at 17,282 units, compared to 14,596 units in February 2022.