Nissan to hike prices of Micra

New Delhi: Car-maker Nissan Motor India is understood to have finalised a hike in the prices of small car Micra and the petrol version of premium sedan Sunny by up to 2 per cent from January, mainly due to adverse currency movements.

According to sources in-the-know of the development, the company has already finalised the proposed increase. "The company is suffering from the falling rupee and rising yen. The input costs for the company are also rising. For protecting its margins, the company will hike the prices of the Micra and Sunny petrol by 0.5-2 per cent from January 1," a source said.

Prices of the diesel variant of the Sunny will not be increased, as it was launched yesterday only, he added. "The price increase will be for both petrol and diesel variants of Micra," the source said.

When contacted to confirm the development, a Nissan Motor India Pvt Ltd (NMIPL) spokesperson declined comment.

The prices of the petrol and diesel variants of the Micra vary between Rs 4.11 lakh and Rs 6.17 lakh. The company sells the petrol variant of Sunny at Rs 5.78 lakh-Rs 7.68 lakh. All the prices are ex-showroom, Delhi.

The Indian rupee tumbled by 56 paise to an all-time low of Rs 53.40 per US dollar in early trade on the Interbank Foreign Exchange today on continued demand for the American currency from banks and importers, coupled with news of negative growth in industrial output in October.

With the rupee falling against the US dollar in recent months, car-makers like Hyundai Motor, Ford, General Motors and Toyota Kirloskar have also announced a hike in prices of their vehicles by up to 3 per cent from January 1.

The country's second-largest car-maker, Hyundai Motor India, will raise the prices of its vehicles by 1.5-2 per cent from January next year.

Ford India also said it will raise prices of its entire range of models by 2-3 per cent from next month.

General Motors India has announced that it will raise prices by 1-2 per cent from January next year. It also will hike the price of its Beat diesel model by Rs 15,000 from next month.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor, too, had announced that a price hike of 1.5-3 per cent across models manufactured in India from January 1, 2012. Other car-makers, including Maruti Suzuki India, are also mulling a price hike to offset rising input costs.