Maruti Suzuki, the country's largest car maker, has revised the pricing of its recently launched hatchback Celerio in India, after the announcement of a reduction in excise duty by finance minister P Chidambaram.
The Celerio, which was originally launched at a starting price of ₹3.90 lakh, will be now available at ₹3.76 lakh. The Automated Manual Transmission (AMT) equipped LXi and VXi variants will now go on sale for ₹4.14 lakh and ₹4.43 lakh respectively, as against the ₹4.29 lakh and ₹4.59 lakh prices revealed earlier.
The Celerio, launched at the Auto Expo 2014 in Noida, is the first car to come with AMT in India. It is offered in six variants in the country - two with automatic transmission and four with manual transmission - and claims a fuel efficiency of 23.1 kilometers for both versions. With a wheelbase of 2425mm, the Celerio measures 3600mm in length and 1600mm in width. It packs a 998cc, 3-cylinder, K10B engine, which can churn out a power of 67 bhp at 6,000 rpm and a torque of 9.1 kgm at 3,500 rpm.
Besides the Celerio, Maruti's other models - Alto, Swift, Swift Dzire,Wagon R,Ritz ,Ertiga and Alto K1 - also enjoyed the benefit of price cut, ranging from ₹8,197 to ₹30,984.
Korean auto major Hyundai also joined the club, by slashing the prices of its cars by up to ₹1,35,300.
"The reduction in excise duty would substantially reduce the prices, making cars more affordable. The quantum of benefit will vary from Rs 10,000 to Rs 1,35,300 across all the models," HMIL Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Rakesh Srivastava told PTI.
The car makers hope to revive their market in India with the latest price cut. The domestic auto market has been witnessing a sluggish demand from past couple of months.
The prices of the Volkswagen Polo have been reduced by ₹18,000- ₹ 31,000. Other models like Vento and Jetta also got ₹27,000 to ₹51,000 reductions.
Announcing the price reduction Arvind Saxena, MD, Volkswagen Passenger Cars India said "We have passed on the entire excise benefit to our customers, and hope this move will help improve the market sentiment in the automotive industry," as quoted by ET.
Mahindra & Mahindra slashed the prices of its passenger vehicle portfolio, ranging from ₹13,000 to ₹ 49,000. The company's Ssangyong Rexton SUV receives a price cut of ₹92,000.