Honda and Hyundai Cars to Get Expensive from April

Indian car makers are now all set for another round of hike in car prices starting from April 1 to counterbalance the cost of OBD (on-board diagnostics) compliance changes. Honda and Hyundai has already announced the hike, while others are studying the OBC compliance changes' implications including India's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India.

Honda Cars India has reported to increase prices of its car across models by up to 2 per cent from April to compensate the cost of OBD compliance and increase in freight. Speaking on the same, a company official said, "We we are increasing car prices from April 1, 2013 by an amount of up to 2 per cent. The details are still being worked out,"

Hyundai Motor India Ltd's Sales & Marketing Vice President Rakesh Srivastava too said that the company will hike prices of its vehicles, however he didn't disclose the exact details on hike. "The price increase has been necessitated due to On Board Diagnostic Compliance Changes (OBDC). We will try to minimise the hike so as to cause less inconvenience to our valued customers. The price increase across models will come into effect from April 1, 2013," he said.

We have already inspected a price hike in January this year, when most automobile companies had increased the prices of their vehicles due to rising input costs and fluctuation in currency. And after the 2013 union budget, SUV prices too have increased due to hike in the excise duty, which has now come to 30 percent from previous 27 per cent.

Source: ET