Tata Motors has announced a price hike of 2-2.5 per cent, effective April 1, for its commercial vehicle range, which includes trucks and light commercial vehicles (LCV).

Attributing the price hike to the increase in the input cost of steel, aluminium and other precious metals, the company said it has tried to absorb a significant portion of the increased costs at various levels of manufacturing.

However, the steep rise in overall input costs makes it imperative for Tata Motors to pass on some residual proportion through a minimised price hike, it said.

Mercedes Benz India had also announced a similar price hike of 3 per cent across its model range from April 1. Most auto makers have raised prices in January. Almost all of them had raised prices throughout 2021. The demand for used vehicles has increased because of the rising costs of new vehicles.

Tata Altroz

The passenger vehicle unit of Tata Motors has launched a dual clutch automatic variant of the hatchback Altroz at a price of Rs 8.1 lakh.

The Altroz DCA, the company says, is an innovative technology with 45 patents and is the world’s first Dual Clutch Technology with planetary gear system. The DCA version of Altroz will be available in the top four variants — XM+, XT, XZ, and XZ+.

The variants will be available in a new colour, Opera Blue, apart from the Dark range, Downtown Red, Arcade Grey, Avenue White and Harbour Blue.