HH and Company was bringing only two models from the Daihatsu stable - Sirion and Terios - in the Nepali market. Daihatsu Motors is the sister company of Toyota Motors of Japan. Sirion was the cheapest Japanese car selling in the town.[break]
HH and Company decided to discontinue selling Sirion for the time being due to rapid increase in the exchange rate of Japanese Yen with Nepali currency. "Earlier, one Japanese Yen used to be about 50 paisa. Now, it has increased to about 77 paisa which is making it difficult for us to continue sales," said Akash Golchha, the director of Golchha Organization.
The company has sold about 600 units of Sirion in the Nepali market of which about 400 units were sold since 2007. Daihatsu Motors was introduced in Nepal in 1992. The company launched Sirion in the Nepali market in 1997.
“Our decision to discontinue the sale of Sirion is a temporary one. If the exchange rate of Japanese Yen goes down, we´ll import the car once again," Golchha added. He also said the rise in exchange rate makes the car expensive by about 30-40 percent.
“It was not easy for us to compete in the market after the rise in exchange rate because we have to compete with Indian and Korean cars which are unaffected by the rise in exchange rate with Yen," he explained.
Sirion was available in two different models - 1000 cc and 1300 cc. The 1300 cc Sirion was available in standard and deluxe model. The price of both of the models ranged between Rs 2 million to Rs 2.3 million.
"The market response for Sirion was always better than our expectations," said Sunil Chhetri, the manager of HH and Company, and further added that the customers of Sirion were usually professionals who were obsessed with the quality of Japanese cars.
After discontinuing the sales of Sirion for the time being, HH and Company is only selling Terios - a SUV from the Daihatsu stable -- in the market. Terios is doing good in the market, according to officials at HH and Company.
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