Tata Motors stated that with effect from July 1, 2010, it has increased the prices of its commercial vehicles by around 1.5%.

This change in the prices is excluding Ace and Magic,

Meanwhile, the company raised the prices to moderately neutralize rise in rates of commodities like steel and tyres.

In order to offset the pressure of increasing input costs, some other auto manufacturers have also raised the prices of their vehicles from July.

Maruti Suzuki, General Motors and Toyota Kirloskar, however, are also estimating their options to lessen pressure from increasing input costs, mainly that of steel and tyres.

Ashok Leyland, Hero Honda and Bajaj Auto, among others have already announced prices hikes.

Moreover, Hero Honda and Bajaj Auto increased prices by up to Rs 1,000 on their two-wheelers.

This is while Ashok Leyland had said it will increase price of the entire range of commercial vehicles between Rs 20,000 and Rs 50,000.

Earlier, it was said that Tata Motors is planning to boost the production capacity of mini-truck Ace and its family.

This will be done in expectation of rising demand.

Meanwhile, it is at present, exploring many possibilities.

This may include setting up a new facility in order to expand capacity and it is carrying out a study for the same.

Tata motors declined to give details by when the company will take a decision on expanding capacity.

It also dint say whether it will set up a new facility or add new lines to its existing unit at Pantnagar and also on the possible investment. Moreover, it sold about 1.6 lakh units of the Ace family of light commercial vehicles (LCV) in 2009-10 and out of this, about 1.1 lakh units were its Ace goods carrier. They, however, have a capacity of 2,50,000 for the Ace family at their Pantnagar plant.

They are very close to full capacity, given the sales trend of the Ace family. In addition, Tata Motors sells 4 different variants of Ace in the Indian market which includes the popular last-mile carrier minitruck.

It also includes a passenger version of the vehicle, Magic. On the other hand, the Ace was launched in May, 2005, as a mini-truck with a sub-one tonne payload.

The vehicle recorded sales of about 30,000 units, during 2005-06 while the next year it witnessed sales of the model growing by more than double to over 70,000 units. On account of the downturn, Ace's sales decreased to a little over 81,000 units in 2008-09 from about 89,000 units in 2007-08. The company also exports the goods carrier to a few neighbouring countries, including Nepal and Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, the market for sub-one tonne goods carriers in the LCV segment is very competitive.

Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) are the two major players in this segment. M&M offers Maxximo and Gio in the sub-one tonne payload category, while Tata Motors is present with a range of vehicles on its Ace platform. Tata Motors and M&M sold 1,21,403 units and 75,963 units respectively in the domestic market under the sub-3.5 tonne goods carrier category in 2009-10. Earlier, Tata Motors reported a growth of 41 % in net sales in May to 56,779 units as compared to 40,196 units in May, 2009.

The domestic market sales for the auto major grew by 37.53 % in the month at 52,801 units against 38,392 units in the same month last year. Out of which the passenger vehicles sales in the domestic market stood at 31,475 units in May against 23,004 units in the same month of 2009, an increase of 36.82 per cent, the company said.

While the company said that the exports also increased twofold at 3,978 units over 1,804 units.

Meanwhile Tata Motors said the sales of Indica fell by 15 % to 8,468 units over May 2009. In the commercial vehicles segment, domestic sales grew from 23,004 units to 31,475, up 36.82 %, while light commercial vehicle sales during the reporting month were at 17,615 units, a growth of 22 % over last year, and medium and heavy commercial vehicle sales stood at 27,017 units, a growth of 62 per cent compared with May 2009.

Cumulative sales (including exports) for the company for the financial year are 113,978 units, a growth of 47 % as against 77,714 units sold last year.