Maruti Suzuki has increased the price of the 1 liter version of mid-size hatchback Wagon R by Rs 8,000, excluding tax in Delhi, on the occasion of the transition to the new BS-VI emission norm.
The new car is available from dealers, the company said, making it one of the first BS-VI compliant cars in the mass market.
The BS-VI compliant Wagon R 1 liter will cost Rs 4.42 lakhs in Delhi for the entry-level LXi petrol version, compared to its earlier price of Rs 4.32 lakhs. The price does not RTO taxes and other levies, but includes GST and other selling-related levies.
Interestingly, the top-end variant is priced at Rs 5.41 lakh in the new version, while the ZXi AGS used to cost Rs 5.70 lakhs for the BS-IV model. It is not clear if the two variants comparable in terms of features.
The minuscule increase of 2.3% should help assuage worries that vehicles that comply with BS-VI standards will cost substantially more.
It was expected that the changes required in the engine and exhaust technology would add around Rs 20,000-25,000 to the price of a mid-segment hatchback car like the Swift.
Interestingly, India’s biggest carmaker did not reveal the BS-VI compliant version of Wagon R with the 1.2 liter engine.
The 1.2 liter engine is also found among other models like the Swift and the Ritz, and its pricing would give a clue about how much the prices of these models could go up, once they are transitioned to the stricter emission regime.
Many car and light vehicle makers have already given up on trying to make their diesel variants compliant with BS-VI norms, and have announced that they will discontinue diesel variants of vehicles with engine sizes in the range of 1 liter or below.
Moreover, diesel vehicles are also likely to see much steeper price increases as they are transitioned from BS-IV to BS-VI.
M&M MD Pawan Goenka said at the beginning of the year that he expects the move from BS-IV to BS-VI to increase the price of a model like XUV500 by less than Rs 1 lakh.
However, he also maintained that the final impact was too soon to be forecast, given how fast the technology was changing.