Amit Saraswat 
Laxmi Group will produce and sell locally-assembled Hyundai cars in Nepal. While the Hyundai Venue is the first locally-assembled vehicle to go on sale in Nepal, the brand is likely to add more models in the new future. The newly-installed plant has the annual capacity of assembling 5,000 vehicles.
Hyundai Motor India, which is the Indian subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Group, joined hands with Laxmi Group as well as local vendors of Nepal to begin first local assembly operations in Nepal. The Indian arm of the South-Korean carmaker also played a pivotal role in transferring skills and expertise while also providing the knocked down kits for the Venue SUV.
At this point, all the vehicles sold in Nepal are brought to the market via the CBU route. Interestingly, Nepal has a different taxation for vehicles compared to other markets like India. Since all vehicles are brought to the market via the CBU route, the Nepalese government imposes considerably higher import tax on ICE-powered vehicles compared to electric vehicles. As a result, EVs in Nepal are priced similar, or in some cases, even lower than their equivalent ICE-powered iterations.
However, local assembly of models could bring down the tax imposition since the economy gets a boost in terms of employment, engineering excellence through localisation and GDP contribution. The first-ever vehicle assembly plant was inaugurated by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the Hon’ble Prime Minister of Nepal, and Mr. Tae-Young Park, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea, in Nepal.
Commenting on commencement of assembly, Unsoo Kim, MD & CEO, Hyundai Motor India Limited said, “This plant in Nepal has an installed capacity of assembling 5 000 units annually, and Hyundai VENUE will be the first locally assembled model to roll off the plant. I would like to convey my sincere congratulations to the people of Nepal for this achievement!”
He further added, “We are immensely grateful to the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri. Pushpa Kamal Dahal and the Government of Nepal for their unwavering support. We look forward to more encouraging policies and incentives from the Nepal Government aimed at developing a conducive environment for local assembly.”
