Auto hood vs back panel vs full wrap in Bangalore (2026): what each format costs and buys

Brands planning auto branding in Bangalore usually ask us to compare three formats: the hood, the back panel and the full wrap. The short answer is that only two of them can be bought off a card. The full wrap has no published rate, so it cannot be compared on price at all, and the real decision is between a Rs.650 hood and a Rs.170 or Rs.270 back panel.

This post was rewritten on 5 October 2026 against the live Bangalore auto branding page. The earlier version put the back panel price breaks at 500 autos (the card puts them at 800), described the hood as front-facing (the page describes rear hood coverage), published per-format impression counts and full-wrap campaign results that do not match anything we publish, and opened with a cost per thousand of Rs.50 to Rs.70 that contradicted its own body. All of that is gone. What is left is the card, the published fleet counts and our own arithmetic, labelled as ours.

What does each auto format cost in Bangalore in 2026?

Every Bangalore auto price is one-time per auto, covering design, printing, fitting, field audits and free replacement of damaged units within 48 hours. Nothing is billed monthly. GST at 18 percent is extra, and at union-run stands such as Majestic, Yeshwanthpur and the City Market side a per-auto facilitation fee is billed separately at actuals. The card is national, so these are the same rates we quote in every other city.

Two things are easy to misread. First, the back panel breaks sit at 800 autos, not 500: 500 small panels cost Rs.85,000, and the Rs.140 rate only starts at the 800th auto, where the order is Rs.1,12,000. Second, the cheaper hood rate starts at 500, so 500 hoods are Rs.3,15,000, not Rs.3,25,000.

What does the same Rs.1,95,000 buy in each format?

Because the rates are fixed, the useful comparison is not price per auto but what one budget buys. We took the smallest hood order, Rs.1,95,000, and spent the same amount on each panel size at the 800-plus rate. The fleet shares are our arithmetic against the 1,10,000-plus BBMP-registered autos the page publishes, so they are ceilings.

On reach alone the small panel wins by a factor of 4.6. On surface the large panel is the better buy: 24 by 18 inches is three times the area of 24 by 6 for 1.6 times the price, which works out to about Rs.90 per square foot of panel against Rs.170. The hood wins on neither count. It wins on presence, which the next sections explain.

Which way does each format face?

The live page describes the full hood as coverage of the auto's rear hood area, visible from behind, from above and from both sides, whether the auto is moving or parked. The back panel sits on the rear panel at eye level with trailing traffic. Neither format is front-facing. Both talk mainly to the vehicles and pedestrians behind and beside the auto, which matters in Bangalore because so much of an auto's day is spent queued: at Silk Board, on the ORR at Bellandur, outside metro exits and at stands.

The difference is how much of the auto you own. The hood is the largest single surface and is read from three angles, so a parked auto at a tech park gate or a hospital entrance works like a small sign. The panel is a strip read from one direction. That is why the page calls the hood its premium awareness format and the small panel its mass hyperlocal reach format.

How long does each format last, and what does that do to the cost?

The page gives hood covers a typical life of 6 to 12 months and back panel stickers 4 to 6 months, on 100-micron rexine and UV-stabilised vinyl. Spreading the one-time price over that life gives a cost per auto per month that the card itself does not show.

• Hood at Rs.650: Rs.54 to Rs.108 per auto per month of life.
• Small panel at Rs.170: Rs.28 to Rs.43 per auto per month; at Rs.140, Rs.23 to Rs.35.
• Large panel at Rs.270: Rs.45 to Rs.68 per auto per month; at Rs.240, Rs.40 to Rs.60.

At the minimum orders the gap nearly closes. 300 hoods cost Rs.16,250 to Rs.32,500 per month of life and 500 small panels Rs.14,167 to Rs.21,250. The hood buys fewer autos for longer; the panel buys more autos for a shorter run. If your campaign is 60 to 90 days, the hood's extra life is value you will not use unless you keep the creative running afterwards.

Is a full-wrap auto available in Bangalore?

Not from the card. The page lists three priced formats (the rexine hood and two panel sizes) and one unpriced format (interior seat-back). There is no full-wrap rate, minimum or lead time, and the hood the page calls a wrap is the rexine hood cover, not the whole body. If you need something beyond those formats, ask and we will tell you whether it can be done, but this post makes no claim about what a full wrap would cost or deliver, because we publish nothing to base one on. The older version of this post quoted full-wrap impression counts and Instagram tag counts; we could not trace either to a published source, so both were removed.

What about cost per thousand impressions?

The page publishes one estimate for a branded auto, 15,000 to 30,000 impressions a day, and one cost band, Rs.3 to Rs.8 per thousand. It does not split either by format, so any hood-versus-panel cost per thousand is an assumption, and we have stopped publishing one. The two figures also do not reconcile over a full run. On our arithmetic, Rs.650 at Rs.3 to Rs.8 per thousand buys 81,250 to 2,16,667 impressions, which the daily estimate reaches in 3 to 15 days; the same band applied to a Rs.170 panel is used up in under four days. Read the band as a comparison against other media, not as a format-level metric, and plan on autos, zones and months instead.

Where does the minimum order land in Bangalore's busiest hubs?

Share of fleet is a citywide number. What a brand feels on the street is share of the autos in one hub. The page publishes stand and belt counts for seven places; here is the minimum order as a share of each, on our arithmetic. Every count is a plus figure, so the shares are upper bounds.

Two readings follow. A 500-panel order cannot sit inside BTM alone, which is why the page's own coaching example spreads 500 panels across BTM and Koramangala's 4th to 8th Blocks, roughly 1,200 autos between them, or about 42 percent. And a 300-hood order inside the MG Road exit fleet would put a hood on half the autos there, which for a single brand is close to saturation.

When does the hood win?

Pick the hood when presence matters more than count. A clinic or hospital whose branded autos park at its own gate, a launch that needs to look big in one or two hubs, and campaigns that will run past six months all suit it. The page's hospital example is the shape: 300 hoods across Whitefield, Marathahalli and Varthur for 90 days at Rs.1,95,000, with autos parked at the gate adding stationary visibility. If the creative carries a logo and one line, the hood's three viewing angles do more for it than a strip on the back.

When does the back panel win?

Pick the panel when the budget is under Rs.1,95,000, when the campaign is 60 to 90 days, or when you need many autos rather than large ones. It is the only way into Bangalore auto branding below the hood minimum: 500 small panels are Rs.85,000, or Rs.1,00,300 with GST. It also carries a QR code at eye level for trailing traffic, which is how the page's food delivery example uses 500 large panels across Indiranagar, Koramangala and the MG Road metro exit. Choose 24 by 18 inch when the message has a second line or a code; 24 by 6 inch is a name and a phone number.

Should you put a hood and a back panel on the same autos?

Only if you can meet both minimums on the same vehicles. The panel minimum is 500, so a combined fleet is at least 500 autos, at which point the hood is Rs.630: Rs.800 per auto with a small panel or Rs.900 with a large one. That is Rs.4,00,000 or Rs.4,50,000 before GST. Splitting the formats across different autos is cheaper at the floor, 300 hoods plus 500 small panels for Rs.2,80,000, but it is two campaigns sharing one creative, not one campaign twice as strong. For most briefs under Rs.4 lakh, one format at a larger fleet does more.

Hood, back panel or full wrap: how should a Bangalore brand choose?

• Budget under Rs.1,95,000 before GST: back panel. 500 small panels at Rs.85,000 or 500 large ones at Rs.1,35,000.
• Budget of Rs.1,95,000: decide between 300 hoods for presence and up to 1,392 small panels for reach. The table above sets them side by side.
• Campaign of 90 days or less: the panel, unless parked-auto visibility at your own gate is the point.
• Campaign of six months or more: the hood, whose 6 to 12 month life outlasts a panel's 4 to 6.
• Message with a QR code or a second line: the 24 by 18 inch panel.
• A full wrap: not available from the card; ask before you plan around one.
• Central routes such as MG Road and Brigade Road: the page's Bangalore pricing note adds 10 percent there. The note is worded for vans, so confirm with us whether it applies to your auto order before budgeting it.

Where does the Bangalore page disagree with itself?

Naming these is part of an honest comparison. The page recommends clustering 20 to 50 autos in a 2 km neighbourhood and says about 20 autos in one pocket is where residents start noticing, but no format can be booked below 300 hoods or 500 panels; read those as planning units inside a larger order. It publishes one cost per thousand for formats priced four times apart, which cannot be right for both. Its Bangalore pricing note talks about vans. And it describes the small panel as the highest-reach format while publishing a single impression estimate for every auto. None of this changes the card, which is consistent everywhere it appears.

Our recommendation

For most Bangalore briefs we see, the decision is budget first. Under Rs.1,95,000 it is a panel campaign, and the 500-panel, Rs.85,000 entry order is the one we quote most. At Rs.1,95,000 and above, choose the hood when the brand needs to look large in one or two hubs or will run past six months, and choose panels when it needs to be seen across many neighbourhoods inside a quarter. Send us your budget, zones and dates and we will lay out the hood and panel versions with the arithmetic attached.