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I heard that Yamaha was planning a discount on the heaps of R1 lying around after the initial burst of sales. Specially the Mt01. However, the discount, if it comes, wont be for goodwill reasons. They also need to think about the 07 stock that they might be selling to unsuspecting customers as 08 in India (had a discussion elsewhere on the forums about this).

But whatever the case may be, in the end, it is the government who has to take decisions. Unfortunately we have so many deep empty pockets to fill in our political system and the generation old officials seem to have a cataract which prevents them from seeing the HYBRID is actually a car which is the need of the hour in a super polluted country like India.

Further, superbikes are not saving the environment, so if I am the environment minister I see no reason to push for a drop in duty for them. Hard but true.

that is a stock clearing move...while it may sound awesome..it is actually bad news becoz if all the major companies go bust with their cbu imports and absorb the losses..it will be end of officially imported bikes in india and teh little wave of happiness we have now will end up as tears and after the official stock is cleared the grey market will bloom again..company absorbing the loss will not help the matter..reforms in the tax code are needed which wont happen any time soon becoz of the absolute lack of interest by policy makers in the field of high end bikes..only indigenous production can help us out and the R15 is a small but sure step in that direction..

Indian automotive industry should soon rise to the opportunity of the Hybrid tech or more efficient tech. Giants like GM/Ford are already paying the price for ignoring it. This is indeed a great time to invest into it. If I am a VC loaded with cash, I will be looking for such ideas (while also buying a CBR for myself)

I think the indian govt is indeed right in levying that tax. More than a cut in the tax the govt should be providing an environment favourable for the companies to be able to bring a knocked down units, reassemble in the plants with in the country and offer at better prices. This in turn will allow eshtablished automotive spares providers within the country to evolove and offer cheaper spares within the country. Then the Mahindras or TATA will follow. After that, open up for a competitive market. (yeah I'd wish that everything just falls into place as I type the message).

As far as Civic is concerned, they had umpteen number of queries but just sold 60 cars before this cut. The 200 odd bookings in 4 days only shows it is a wise decision to offer cut. Honda and Toyota have been trying to project themselves as companies selling green(er) tech. Their takeaway in this excercise is an image build up (and perhaps even a clearance of stock). I doubt if Yammies will benifit as much by such an excercise. They can only bank on increased presense and a much better desireability to their smaller bikes. But they are already qutie sought after. so unless they see a diminishing interest in the smaller bikes, I dont expect such an offer coming anytime soon with the Yammies. my two paise

The Tata's are well on their way working with various alternate fuel vehicles with many projects currently going on. Even the Mahindra's are working strong on this... that makes me think... what is Maruti Suzuki doing?

The price cut is probably nothing to do with good will. Its definitely stock clearance since the hybrid in real world conditions wasn't efficient enough over the 1.8 petrol to justify the astronomical price tag. And what about incidental costs - insurance, maintenance, parts, re sale? We just aren't ready yet which Honda seems to have realized the hard way. Why would someone want the hybrid for a cool 8lacs more for a few more airbags, steering mounted audio controls and those funny looking alloys when it isn't earth shattering in terms of efficiency?
The right way to become more efficient is to go all out for small cars (don't mean less powerful tho). We are already down that path.

Forgetting about cars - Yam can not cut prices like Honda did since there is no real parallel such as a cheaper version of R1 available side by side. Also, even if the cost climbs down to 5lakhs, how many takers would it really have? No, i'm serious cause the numbers would still be only marginally better. But like sunny said, tax cuts come from babu's who don't care much about 2 wheels. Its is 4wheels they need to carry junta for election campaigns.

ohh then how much will yamha R1 cost on road if yamaha cuts price ?

Although Honda officials said the opposite, Yes, it seems Stock clearance maybe it!

Company will NOT do it forever, Company will have a target, say 200 orders ... Once this is fulfilled, the company will close down the offer ... So, even if sales are slow, it hardly matters to the Company! They lose only a "pre-decided amount".

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@ harshaguduru: I don't fear that, after all Imports need not be "stocked". They can be ordered with 1 month delay ... right? So, CBU Imports won't close down as even Honda made no signs about it!
Reg. R15, I think a forge piston plant can't be for one bike, CAN IT? So, I myself expect some more India made R-s in the future ...

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@ Sunny bhai: Well, 07 models are not technically different than 08'. But yes, for Potential Users this can be an excuse.

piston plant???
thought that the R15s engines were being imported from Indonesia?
have they started making them here now..then it will awesome news for all of us!!!
harsha

No, you are partially right. Some Engine components are imported, whose costs are 40% of total cost excluding taxes ... I know this from official interviews in magazines.

but yes, the Forge piston (80% Aluminium+ 20% silicon) & Deltabox frame are made in India ...

Currently, an SKD kit attracts a custom duty of almost 62 per cent as against a consolidated duty of more than 110 per cent on the CBU unit (fully imported).


A completely knocked down (CKD) kit attracts a duty of just 10.3 per cent. The A4, which would carry a price tag of about Rs 36 lakh as its full import cost, will however be sold for just Rs 29 lakh till December 2008.



So companies are doing things based on various business models and stuff, which may be needed to popularize the market. Now, Car's are a different market as compared to Motorbike. The Luxury card segment in India which is between 25-50 Lakhs, is expected to grow between 200-300% in next two years.


Motor-Bike's on the other hand are only growing @ 10-15% in there luxury avatar. In my opinion it makes no sense in predicting a CBU duty absorption by a Motor-Bike company in India, looking at market economics, which already are not very healthy amongst Services and Manufacturing Sector which are the mojor chunk of our economy.

@suhail:: Are you sure about this ?? I dont know when did govt reduce it to 10.3% from +/- 20 to 30%. I remember with all other duties, education cess, service on cess...makes it somewhere around 36% if i remember correctly...

I dont think that was done for godwill, read the link below people who went to book the cars, cheques taken(85% of the price) and encashed and cars not allotted, the ones who paid 100%, cars allotted, to be delivered soon, and many more information finally pointing towards a mere ploy to clear stocks.

honda civic hybrid at 13.65 lacs limited time offer: Now Sold Out - Page 15 - Team-BHP

Do I expect YMIL to do so? yes if they can lobby in the name of recession and suqeeze it out from P.C.

@Mods:- How can we predict the discount that too in a poll, we can have Yes No and maybe as option with the members posting the amount they think should be reduced.

@Kriss: This is what one of the guy's from Audi operations told me, in fact i also had the knowledge of >30% tax, but he said not it was 10.3%. I would like to believe he was correct knowing the profile he works as.

fine... I'll give you a link... go through it and corrent him dude...

will post the link here soon...