Honda hikes car prices by up to Rs120,000

Increase comes on back of fluctuation in foreign exchange and its impact on business

KARACHI: Honda Atlas Cars Pakistan has hiked prices of its vehicle in the range of Rs60,000-120,000 as costs rise amid a lockdown in the country and an economy reeling from impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Keeping in view the increase in foreign exchange and its impact on completely knocked down (CKD) and other parts, Honda Atlas is compelled to increase the price of Honda cars with effect from May 5, 2020,” read the notice issued by the company to its dealers.

A source in the automobile sector said that the automobile company’s sales remained acutely disturbed during the lockdown, which were already on a downward trajectory in the pre-Covid 19 period due to a slowdown in the economy.

“These automobile companies are run by highly sophisticated human resource who are paid lucrative salaries,” the source pointed out. “Hence, these companies have accumulated burden of salaries of employees so they are now filling the gap by hiking prices while customers remain reluctant to buy a car on the back of decreased purchasing power.”

However, the auto companies still expect sales to pick up due to multiple cuts in the benchmark interest rate by the central bank from March 2020 onward, he said. When interest rate decreases, consumers tend to buy vehicles on lease from banks.

According to the notice, the car maker raised price of Civic 1.5 L Turbo by Rs120,000 to Rs4.6 million.

The Civic 1.5 L Turbo Oriel variant was made costlier by Rs100,000 to Rs4.35 million while the 1.8 VTI SR CVT variant witnessed a hike of Rs120,000 to Rs3.99 million.

The price of Civic 1.8L CVT registered an increase of Rs100,000 to stand at Rs3.65 million. The automaker increased price of City 1.3L MT from Rs2.33 million to Rs2.39 million, a jump of Rs60,000.

The cost of City 1.3L AT rose Rs65,000 to Rs2.574 million.

The Japanese automaker hiked price of City 1.5L MT from Rs2.39 million earlier to Rs2.46 million.

The price of its City 1.5L AT variant increased from Rs2.56 million to Rs2.63 million.

Honda inflated the price of City 1.5L Aspire MT from Rs2.56 million to Rs2.63 million while City 1.5L Aspire AT model became costlier by Rs70,000 to Rs2.79 million.

The company increased price of BR-V MT by Rs80,000 to Rs3.08 million.

Similarly, the cost of BR-V CVT rose from Rs3.15 million to Rs3.24 million, a jump of Rs90,000.

The BR-V S CVT model became costlier by Rs100,000 as its price soared from Rs3.3 million to Rs3.4 million.

“The new retail suggested price is applicable on all booking received from April 23, 2020 and onwards,” said the company’s notification. 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 6^th, 2020.

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