Toyota Cars To Get Expensive In 2019

• Toyota to increase prices by up to 4 per cent from January 2019
• Price hike across its entire range of cars in India
• Rising raw material costs, interest rates additional catalysts

If you were planning to buy a Toyota car after New Year, we have some bad news for you. The Japanese carmaker has decided to hike prices by up to 4 per cent across its entire range of vehicles in India starting January 2019.

According to Toyota, the upcoming hike in prices is mainly due to a depreciating rupee, which has in turn led to a significant increase in operating costs for the carmaker in India. India’s currency fell to an all-time low of 74.48 against the US dollar in October and is still at least 10 per cent down year-on-year. To make matters worse for carmakers, hardening interest rates and a sharp increase in raw material prices, including those of steel, have also led to an increased pressure on the industry.

Even as Toyota is pinning the price hike only on the falling rupee, the price hike in January is mostly cyclical as most carmakers revise their pricing upon the turn of the year. Additionally, Toyota, along with a host of other carmakers, had increased prices in August. Toyota had silently increased prices by up to 3 per cent across its entire range then.

Toyota manufactures and locally assembles almost its entire range of products in India which include the Fortuner, Innova Crysta, Corolla Altis, Yaris, Etios, Etios Liva, Etios Cross, Camry and Camry Hybrid. Meanwhile, it imports its top of the range Land Cruiser, Prado and Prius as CBUs in India. Ex-showroom prices start at Rs 5.49 lakh for the cheapest car Etios Liva and go up to Rs 1.41 crore for the top model Toyota Land Cruiser.

Here is what Toyota said in its official statement on the price hike today.

Release:
November 27th, 2018 Bangalore: Toyota Kirloskar Motor likely to increase the prices by up to 4% effective from January 01, 2019. The company considered the price hike after periodically reviewing the continuous pressure of increasing manufacturing costs, which is also a general industry phenomenon.

“There has been an impact in the cost of manufacturing of vehicle primarily due to rupee depreciation. Toyota has been absorbing the additional costs all this while, protecting the customers from price increase. However, due to the continued pressure of high costs, we have to pass on a part of it to customers. Toyota is considering a price increase of upto 4% across models with effect from 1st Jan 2019. We would like to express our gratitude to our valued customers for the never ending trust and loyalty towards Toyota Products.

Toyota products are backed by a unique combination of Toyota’s Global Promise of Quality, Durability & Reliability (QDR) offering best in class quality, unbeaten safety features, comfort, fuel economy and low cost of maintenance. The company has been constantly striving to offer the best services to enhance customer delight over the years.