Santro Price Hike Next Year

Hyundai Motor India Ltd will raise the price of the base model of the Santro, its recently-launched small car, from Rs 2.99 lakh (ex-showroom price in Delhi) to about Rs 3.25 lakh in six months.

"We plan to raise the price of the base model of the Santro in six months to about Rs 3.25 lakh. The idea is to sell less and less of the base model and more of the other high-end models and make money," Hyundai executive-director (marketing & sales) J H Kim told Business Standard.

Hyundai's intention to hike the price of the base model of Santro will, to some extent, allay fears among competitors of an imminent price war in the domestic small car market. "We do not want to get into a price war," said Kim.

However, some sceptics in the automobile industry say Kim's statement of an imminent price rise may be geared towards boosting the bookings for Santro, which close today. According to a senior Hyundai executive, the first phase of bookings for the Santro, which opened on Thursday, had attracted close to 8,000 bookings till last evening.

"The pessimistic expectation is 6,000 bookings, the realistic expectation is 8,000 and the optimistic expectation is 10,000 by the close on Monday evening. What we have received so far is close to the realistic expectation and we may end up realising the optimistic expectation, as we expect a spurt in bookings on Monday," said the executive.

However, the first phase booking figure of 25,000-30,000, expected by some dealers, seems to be out of reach.

The highest numbers of bookings have been reported from the Southern region, followed by the Northern and the Western.