Nissan hikes prices across range by up to 3.5 per cent

In the aftermath of the recently announced 2016-17 Union Budget, Nissan has hiked the prices of its entire range of cars in India by up to 2.5 per cent. The Japanese carmaker has now joined a host of companies that have increased the prices of their products following the increased levies on automobiles in the latest edition of the budget from the Narendra Modi government.

“The increase in prices is in the range of 1-3.5% across models,” a company spokesperson told PTI. The company has raised prices of Datsun models by 1 per cent and that of diesel models, including Terrano and mid-sized sedan Sunny, by 3.25-3.5 per cent, further added the spokesperson.

Nissan Motor India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nissan Motor Co, sells a range of vehicles from entry-level model Micra Active to SUV Terrano priced between Rs 4.47 lakh and Rs 13.20 lakh.

Datsun’s range of vehicles includes the entry-level small-car Datsun Go and the MPV Datsun Go Plus, priced between Rs 3.23 lakh and Rs 4.78 lakh (all prices ex-showroom Delhi).

After this announcement, Nissan has followed several leading automakers in India that have already increased prices of their products, including the country’s top two manufacturers Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai. While the former had hiked prices of its vehicles across models in the range of Rs 1,441 to Rs 34,494 the latter announced a push of around Rs 80,000 to its car prices.

Other leading names to hike prices, in order to offset the impact of the infrastructure cess proposed in Budget 2016-17, are Mercedes-Benz that will increase its car prices by up to Rs 5 lakh from March 15, Mahindra, Tata Motors and Honda. 

Talking of this year’s budget, several demands from the automobile fraternity were overlooked. On the contrary, in fact, extra taxes and levies were imposed.

Small petrol, CNG and LPG cars were slapped with an additional 1 per cent of infra tax whereas diesel cars under a smaller cubic capacity were handed a 2.5 per cent infrastructure tax. Diesel and petrol cars with a higher cubic capacity will now be charged with a 4 per cent infrastructure tax.

To top it all, an extra one per cent tax on all luxury cars above Rs 10 lakh, in a supposed move to curb pollution, was also announced by finance minister Arun Jaitley.