These 5 SUVs Sold In India Are Priced MUCH Higher In Nepal

Due to high import taxes, even non-luxury cars can cross the Rs 1-crore threshold in the neighbour nation

Nepal, our mountain-sharing neighbouring country, is a market for a lot of international carmakers and some India-made ones as well. Carmakers that operate in both India and Nepal have a similar lineup in both countries, but when it comes to prices, there is a massive difference. So much so that some of the popular cars sold here are three times more expensive in Nepal. Here are five such examples of eye-watering price differences due to the import tariffs:

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Hyundai Creta

The Hyundai Creta, launched in Nepal back in 2015, is more than 2.5 times as expensive as in India. In Nepal, the Creta gets the same powertrains as the India-spec compact SUV. It comes with a 116PS, 1.5-litre diesel engine mated to a 6-speed manual and 6-speed automatic transmission; and a 115PS, 1.5-litre petrol engine which comes with a 6-speed manual and a CVT gearbox.

Maruti Grand Vitara

The Maruti Grand Vitara was launched in India back in September last year, and this year in March, the strong-hybrid compact SUV landed in the Nepal market as the Suzuki Grand Vitara. As seen in the table above, the price of the top-spec variant of this Maruti model is close to three times of that in India.

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In Nepal, the Suzuki SUV gets the same petrol and strong-hybrid powertrain options as the India-spec model. It also gets the same variant list and variant-wise feature distribution.

Tata Safari

Except for the Tata Tigor EV and Punch, Nepal gets the full lineup from the carmaker. The Tata Safari launched there six months after its home launch in India in 2021. In Nepal, its price crosses the NPR 1-crore mark and when converted to Indian currency, its top-spec is close to Rs 70 lakh.

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Just like in India, the Tata Safari gets a 2-litre diesel engine (170PS/350Nm) in Nepal mated to either a 6-speed manual or a 6-speed automatic transmission. However, the carmaker doesn’t offer any special editions in Nepal like the Dark, Red Dark and Adventure editions.

Hyundai Tucson

Unlike India, Nepal gets more of the premium Hyundai SUV lineup. The biggest SUV sold by the Korean carmaker in India, the Tucson, is also sold in Nepal for a much higher price tag. The top-spec variant of the SUV, which is priced at Rs 35.46 lakh in India, demands a sum of Rs 1.02 crore in Nepal.

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In Nepal, the Hyundai Tucson gets the same 2-litre petrol engine (156PS/192Nm) and diesel engine (186PS/416Nm) as offered here. However, it also gets a 1.6-litre turbo-petrol engine (180PS/265Nm) in Nepal, which we don’t get in India, and we also miss out on the manual gearbox offered with the larger petrol unit.

Toyota Fortuner

Lastly, the Toyota Fortuner, which has become incredibly costly in India, is the most expensive model on this list. Even the base-spec model, in Nepal, starts from Rs 1.39 crore in Indian currency. The Nepal-spec Fortuner comes with only the 2.8-litre turbo-diesel engine (204PS/ up to 500Nm) paired with a 6-speed manual and a 6-speed automatic transmission, and gets 4WD.

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The India-spec model also gets a 2.7-litre petrol engine (166PS/245Nm) with a 5-speed manual and a 6-speed automatic transmission, and gets an option of a two-wheel-drive system with this powertrain. The Nepal market misses out on the Fortuner Legender.

Reason For Such High Prices

None of these models are manufactured in Nepal and are brought into the country as imports. While there are a lot of factors involved in the pricing of a car, import tariffs play a very big role. Due to the high import tariffs imposed by Nepal’s government, they become very expensive.

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While the Indian government also imposes heavy tariffs on imported cars in the country which makes those cars cost almost double, the tariffs put by the government in Nepal outweigh the Indian ones by a big margin.

Let us know which one of these models surprised you the most with its prices in the comments below.

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