Hyundai Drops Plans To Introduce Verna Mild Hybrid In India

Hyundai Motors has announced that the company has dropped its plans to introduce the much anticipated Hyundai Verna mild hybrid car in India due to unfavourable GST prices. The new Goods and Service Tax (GST), which came into effect on July 1, 2017, saw a substantial hike in taxation on hybrid cars in India. Post GST, all hybrid cars which earlier came in the tax bracket of 30.3 per cent have now gone up to 43 per cent.

Also Read: 2017 Hyundai Verna Launched; Price and Other Details

This is particularly bad for the Indian car market, which still at a nascent stage when it comes to hybrid cars. Such a price hike at this point has not only acted as a deterrent to car buyers from opting for hybrid cars, but will also discourage manufacturers who previously had plans to introduce new hybrid vehicles in India. And Hyundai is one of them.

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The new-gen Hyundai Verna was supposed to come with a mild hybrid version

Evidently, Hyundai India had planned to introduce a mild hybrid version of the Verna sedan with the new-gen model, which is slated to be launched this month on August 22. Now, the company has dropped that plan and talking to carandbike.com about it Y K Koo, MD, CEO Hyundai Motors said, "Before we decided to launch the next-gen Verna, we had planned the introduction of a mild hybrid version because at that time the government has some benefits for such a product. But after GST roll out there are no benefits, which is why we withdrew our plans to introduce the mild hybrid technology with the next-generation Verna."

Also Read: 2017 Hyundai Verna: First Drive

Instead, the carmaker will now only introduce the Hyundai Verna with the 1.6-litre petrol and 1.6-litre diesel internal combustion engines. The new 1.6 petrol will be making 121 bhp of power and 130 Nm of peak torque, while the 1.6 diesel oil burner makes 126 bhp and peak torque of 245 Nm. Transmission options will include the 6-speed manual and a 6-speed torque converter automatic. In addition to that, there is a lot more new in the 2017 Hyundai Verna, which we have spoken about in our earlier reports.

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All that said, we recently also reported that the government might consider lowering the GST rates on hybrid cars seeing the industry's reaction. The next GST council meeting was due to be held last week on August 5 to review the rates for hybrid cars but as of now, no such report has come from the council. Instead, the council has agreed on increasing the cess on luxury cars and SUVs from 15 per cent to 25 per cent, which takes the overall tax bracket to 53 per cent, which was earlier 43 per cent, after GST roll out. How that affects both hybrid and non-hybrid cars in India though is left to be seen.