Dealers dealing on vehicles manufactured in third countries have attributed the rise in price to weakening of rupee vis-a-vis US dollar that has made imports expensive.[break]
According to new price that came into effect last week, four-wheelers imported from India have become costlier by Rs 25,000-Rs 100,000, while those imported from third countries have become expensive by Rs 300,000 to Rs 400,000.
Dealers of Daihatsu, Ford, Hyundai, Mahindra, Skoda, Toyota and Volkswagen have increased prices of all their models, while Maruti Suzuki have increased prices of only the selected models.
Laxmi InterContinental that represents Hyundai in Nepal has increased the price of Santro, i10 and i20 cars imported from India by around Rs 60,000 while prices of Tucson and Santa Fe SUVs imported from South Korea have gone up by Rs 300,000 and Rs 400,000 respectively.
“We are forced to revise prices of vehicles upward even though the automobile market is down because the prices have increased in India itself,” said Rupesh Sharma Bhatta, senior manager-business development and planning at Laxmi InterContinental. He added that vehicles imported from third countries have become dearer mainly due to strengthening of US dollar.
Go Ford has increased the prices of all the diesel vehicles. Among petrol vehicles, it has increased the price of only Figo LXi. “We have left the prices of most of the petrol vehicles unchanged as the demand for petrol vehicles is high and we do not want our customers to be affected by repeated price hikes,” Dipesh Shakya, sales manager at Go Ford, told Republica.
India-manufactured Ford vehicles have become dearer by Rs 25,000 to Rs 110,000, while Ranger and Classic that are imported from Thailand have become expensive by Rs 25,000 to Rs 115,000.
Arun Intercontinental - the authorized dealer of Maruti Suzuki in Nepal -- has increased the price of Eeco only. It is planning to increase prices of other models in the near future.
Maruti Suzuki India had increased the prices of cars by 0.3 to 3.4 percent in January, according to officials of Arun Intercontinental.
Honda lowers prices
Though most of the four-wheelers in the market have become dearer, Honda has lowered prices of its cars in the domestic market. Syakar Company that represents Honda four-wheelers in Nepal has decreased prices of its cars in range of Rs 300,000 to Rs 700,000.
“Honda has brought down the prices of its cars as it is manufacturing parts in India itself and focusing on volume sales,” Saurav Jyoti, director of Syakar Company, said. T
he company has lowered price of Jazz by whopping Rs 700,000, while price of City has come down by Rs 300,000. Honda Jazz and City will now cost Rs 2.8 million and Rs 3.4 million respectively.
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