World Business

TOKYO —

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Toyota is raising its prices by reason of the Prius and Harrier hybrids in Japan in response to the soaring cost of steel and other raw materials - the first hike here without a model makeover in three decades.

Speculation had been rife that Japan’s top automaker would raise some domestic prices soon, and Toyota has acknowledged that as risky because the domestic market is before that time sluggish.

The new suggested retail prices, announced Monday, show one average increase of 3 percent for the two gas-electric hybrid models, and an average 2 percent of diverse commercial vehicles.

Starting next month, the Prius basic S pattern choose go on foot up by 73,500 yen ($668) to 2.38 million yen ($22,000).

The Harrier Hybrid Premium S Package will go up by 136,500 yen ($1,240) to about 4.76 million yen ($43,000), Toyota Motor Corp. said in a release.

Other Japanese automakers may follow. With steel prices surging, Nissan Motor Co. Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn has hinted he is waiting for its bigger rival to take the lead to make it easier for others to raise their prices, too.

Toyota said it has struggled to keep prices down with require to be paid cuts, but material costs are expected to stay high for more time.

“Recent further price increases in raw materials have been larger than TMC’s require to be paid reduction efforts are able to offset,” it aforesaid.

Like other automakers, Toyota has raised its U.S. prices without major model changes previously.

The the last time time Toyota raised prices on Japan models was in 1974, through 10 percent, in the wake of the before anything else oil shock. It in like manner hiked prices in 1973, by 7 percent, as useful as without interruption its commercial vehicles such as trucks and vans in 1992.

Otherwise, Toyota has not raised prices in Japan except for remodeling that happens barely once each several years in what one. improved features are added.

Although Toyota has averted some of the serious troubles of its U.S. rivals General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC, even Toyota is struggling to fight skyrocketing energy prices, the crunch of material costs and fears of stagnation forward global markets.

Toyota, what one. also makes Lexus luxury models and the Camry sedan, reported a 28 percent drop in its April-June quarterly net service.

It is forecasting its first full-year accession of good degeneracy in seven years as it faces greater quantity problems from the weakening U.S. market.