KARACHI, June 28: Honda Atlas has raised prices citing exchange rate disparity as major reason of the increase instead of Euro-II conversion cost.
Earlier, two other car assemblers had raised prices on the plea as they were rolling out Euro-II compliant vehicles ahead of July 1, 2012 deadline given by the government.
However, a car assembler said that along with the introduction of catalytic converter in the Euro-II compliant vehicles, prices are being revised on account of 5.5 per cent depreciation of rupee against the US dollar and three per cent against the Japanese yen during the past five months.
Honda Atlas Car has raised the prices of (both locally assembled vehicles) by minimum Rs30,000 to maximum Rs400,000 from Friday next.
An official in the company told Dawn that locally made Honda Civic and Honda City prices have been raised by Rs30,000 and Rs50,000, respectively.
Imported CRV vehicle and Honda Accord price has been enhanced by Rs400,000 and Rs300,000, respectively.
He claimed that “all Honda models either imported or locally assembled, are already Euro-1V complaint instead of Euro-II for the last few years.”
The losing value of rupee against the dollar and yen has actually forced the company to revise prices to offset the impact of rising cost of imported parts used in the local assembly, he added.
The official said City had been running quite in losses since 2009 while Civic was more profitable as it had no competition with other counterparts.
The company, he said, is importing around 100 units of CRV vehicle and Honda Accord every year depending on the demand.
However, according to figures of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (FBS), total import of completely built-up (CBU) cars in the country during July-May 2011-2012 surged by 162 per cent to $332 million as compared to $127 million in thecorresponding period of last fiscal year. The official said that the share of used car in above figures is over 95 per cent.
The local market is now flooded with a variety of used cars of various engine capacities. The Indus Motor Company (IMC) has already raised prices by up to Rs75,000 by installing catalytic converter in its vehicles that converts engine exhaust gases into less harmful substance.
Pak-Suzuki Motor Company has also increased prices by introducing Euro-II compliant vehicles. With only two days to meet the July 1 deadline, the much awaited Euro-II Honda CDI 70cc two-wheeler is yet to hit the market.
A bike dealer said that the company would launch it early next month.