Toyota Kirloskar Hikes Prices of Toyota cars by INR 20,000!

2011 Toyota Fortuner SUV

Just today morning, we carried a piece on how the appreciation of the Japanese Yen will affect car prices in India, here’s some proof of just that. Toyota Kirloskar Motors India has just upped prices of all it’s cars except the recently launched 2011 Toyota Etios Sedan and it’s fully imported CBUs, effective from today by up to INR 20,000.

While Toyota has chosen to stay mum as to why it is increasing prices, we’re strongly suspecting the appreciating yen to be a major cause apart from the regular raw material and production costs increase theory. Giving this theory further credence, the price of the Toyota Etios Sedan has not been hiked.

Toyota Kirloskar has already embarked on construction of the Etios’ engine and transmission manufacturing unit at Bidadi, off Bangalore, and this could be a prime reason as to why Toyota has not increased prices of the Etios as local manufacture of the Etios’s engine and tranny would give Toyota savings in the long term, thus offsetting the appreciating right now.

The same, while not being true for the other models means that Toyota has no option but to hike their prices. Also, by not hiking prices of the Etios, Toyota has made sure that Etios buyers, most of them being strong value pricing seekers are not put off by the higher prices.

This is extremely crucial at a moment when petrol prices are at record highs in India, making it almost unviable for many car owners to run their cars regularly. The other theory of course is the CKD duty rate structure changing from 10% to 30% for CKD Engines and Gearboxes.

But, since this price hike is not a large one, the CKd theory doesn’t seem too plausible. Coming back to the price bump, the best selling 2011 Toyota Innova MPV will be dearer by INR 12,557 to INR 18,424, the Corolla Altis Diesel by INR 14,100 to INR 17,700, the Corolla Altis Petrol by INR 10,400 to INR 14,500 and finally the segment topping 2011 Toyota Fortuner SUV seeing a price jump of INR 20,000.