Two Japanese carmakers are raising their prices on electric vehicles as they struggle to absorb the soaring cost of raw materials. The price hikes by Nissan Motor and Mitsubishi Motors include mini EVs that they jointly developed and released earlier this year.

Nissan is increasing the price of its Sakura mini EV by three to six percent from Thursday. It says prices will also go up for its flagship electric vehicle, the Leaf, by as much as 24 percent.

Mitsubishi will increase prices for its mini EV, the eK Cross, by about five percent in February. The same goes for the carmaker's main plug-in hybrid, the Outlander.

Batteries account for about one-third of the cost of EVs. The rising costs of lithium and cobalt are main factors behind the price hikes.

The carmakers have tried to keep prices down. But they apparently decided they now have no choice but to pass on some of their higher costs to consumers.