No plan to hike Kona EV prices, despite proposed custom duty hike: Hyundai

Hyundai Motor India is not planning to hike prices of electric model Kona, despite expectations of a rise in the cost of the vehicle with the government proposing to increase customs duty on imported EVs, a top company official said.

The automaker, which is looking to drive in a mass market electric vehicle (EV) over the next two-three years, said it will look to increase localisation to keep the price of the model under check to offset impact of increased customs duty.

"Currently we are are importing some parts of the Kona Electric from South Korea. As per the new Budget announcement, the import duty will go up by 5 per cent... We understand the government's push is towards Make in India so we will do more towards localisation of the product here," Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) Managing Director and CEO SS Kim told PTI.

He admitted that the import duty increase will lead to rise in cost of the vehicle but "we will not pass it over to the customer and try to mitigate the impact by localising more and optimising our processes".

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