VariantWise Observatory · finding 1
What the same car costs across India
Take one car, the Hyundai Creta EX(O) Petrol MT, ex-showroom ₹13.14L. Put it on the road in 25 states and the bill runs from ₹13.81L in Arunachal Pradesh to ₹15.90L in Karnataka: a gap of ₹2.10L on the identical car, 16% of its ex-showroom price, before anyone has negotiated anything.
And that is the middle of the story. Across the 5 price points computed below, from the budget petrol car to the premium electric car, the same geography gap runs from ₹90,159 to ₹6.47L.
On-road total for the Hyundai Creta EX(O) Petrol MT by state, cheapest to dearest. Free to republish with credit to VariantWise.
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<iframe src="https://variantwise.com/embed/findings/on-road-spread" title="What the same car costs across India" width="100%" height="990" style="border:0;max-width:720px" loading="lazy"></iframe> <p style="font-size:13px">Source: <a href="https://variantwise.com/data/findings/on-road-spread">VariantWise, What the same car costs across India</a></p>
The gap grows with the car
Road tax in most states is a percentage that climbs with price, so the spread widens as the ex-showroom price does:
| The car priced | Ex-showroom | Cheapest state | Dearest state | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tata Tiago Pure Plus A Petrol ATthe budget petrol car | ₹7.11L | ₹7.47LArunachal Pradesh | ₹8.37LKarnataka | ₹90,159 |
| Hyundai Creta EX(O) Petrol MTthe typical petrol car | ₹13.14L | ₹13.81LArunachal Pradesh | ₹15.90LKarnataka | ₹2.10L |
| Tata Harrier Fearless X Dark Turbo Petrol ATthe premium petrol car | ₹22.55L | ₹24.27LGujarat | ₹27.88LKerala | ₹3.61L |
| Kia Carens Clavis EV GTX Electric ATthe typical electric car | ₹23.04L | ₹23.53LMaharashtra | ₹26.75LAssam | ₹3.23L |
| BYD SEAL Premium Electric ATthe premium electric car | ₹46.20L | ₹46.92LMaharashtra | ₹53.39LAssam | ₹6.47L |
Every car above has its own full chart. Click one to open it, and all of them are free to republish with credit:
Tata Tiago Pure Plus A Petrol AT: ₹90,159 between Arunachal Pradesh and Karnataka, across 25 states
On-road total for the Tata Tiago Pure Plus A Petrol AT by state, cheapest to dearest. Free to republish with credit to VariantWise.
Hyundai Creta EX(O) Petrol MT: ₹2.10L between Arunachal Pradesh and Karnataka, across 25 states
On-road total for the Hyundai Creta EX(O) Petrol MT by state, cheapest to dearest. Free to republish with credit to VariantWise.
Kia Carens Clavis EV GTX Electric AT: ₹3.23L between Maharashtra and Assam, across 17 states
On-road total for the Kia Carens Clavis EV GTX Electric AT by state, cheapest to dearest. Free to republish with credit to VariantWise.
Electric is where states disagree hardest
10 of 17 computable states still put the Kia Carens Clavis EV GTX Electric AT on the road within 5% of its ex-showroom price, while others now tax it like any other car. The exemption era is ending state by state, and where you register an EV has quietly become part of its price.
Method, in full
The cars are not chosen: each sits at a fixed percentile of every petrol or electric variant on sale in the catalogue, so this page re-selects them as the market moves. Each is priced with the same computation that builds this site’s own city price pages, on tax tables transcribed from state acts, gazettes and notifications, each rate carrying its source and verification date. Every state starts from the ex-showroom price that applies there: the maker’s own figure for that state where it publishes one, and the national price otherwise. Today no car on this page has a state price of its own on file, so the national price carries every figure here. Scope is an individual buyer’s first private car. States we cannot verify are absent rather than guessed. Tax tables verified through 2026-10-18; this page recomputed 2026-10-24, and it recomputes with every data update, so it does not rot the way a published table does.
The tables themselves are free to download and reuse with attribution on the open data page, and the scoring behind the site is on how we rank.