Saar: Prices will increase by up to 2 per cent across all models on sale in India

Let’s make it perfectly clear that the Nissan GT-R is not part of this list. So, if you are saving up to shell out Rs 2.12 crore (ex-showroom, Delhi) for one of those, you won’t have to spend a single ‘paisa’ extra. However, if you are planning to buy any other Nissan or Datsun car currently on sale in India, you will have to pay more from April 2018 onwards. Nissan has announced that from the start of the next fiscal year, prices of all its and its subsidiary’s, Datsun, cars will go rise by up to 2 per cent. No points for guessing, the rise in input costs were blamed for this decision.

Here’s what Jerome Saigot, who is the managing director of Nissan Motor India Pvt Ltd, had to say, “Due to rising input costs, we will be increasing the price of our Nissan and Datsun cars with effect from 1st April 2018. We are confident that our cars will continue to offer excellent value and choice to our customers.”

Currently, Nissan retails five models and Datsun sells three models in India. As mentioned earlier, the affected list of cars from Nissan’s stable goes down to four as the Godzilla (GT-R) is brought into India as a completely built unit and hence won’t be affected. What is surprising though is that Renault hasn’t announced anything about a possible hike in prices for its range of products in India. Why? Well, the French and the Japanese share almost everything for their local operations here and if input costs are to be blamed, Renault should get affected too. But then Renault has been doing a much better job to lure the Indian customers than its Japanese ally.

We still have a week left in March 2018. Expect more manufacturers to join this list of tormenting customers by announcing price hikes from next month onwards.