Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India today reiterated its plans to launch 15 new products in 2015 as they look to dramatically expand their marketshare with the mantra ‘Retain, Expand, Create’. Keita Muramatsu, President, Honda Motor India speaking at this occasion showcased the ongoing progress of HMSI’s new factory, their fourth in India, which is being built in Gujarat. This factory shall solely produce scooters and will be the largest such plant of Honda’s in the world with a capacity of 1.2 million units annually.
However, Yadvinder Guleria, Vice-President, Sales and Marketing, HMSI did admit that production constraints at their existing plants meant that in 2015-16, their sales target was only 4.7 million units only slightly raised from the 4.4 million they sold in 2014-15. “But by 2016 we shall not only have our new fourth plant but also an additional 600,000 units coming from our expanded plant in Karnataka. We expect to have a capacity of 6.4 million units annually by then.” It is expected that India could soon overtake Indonesia as Honda’s largest two-wheeler market once the additional capacity comes on stream.
Both Muramatsu and Guleria were not very concerned about the recent unseasonal rains and the warnings by the Indian Meteorological Department of a slightly subdued monsoon. “We expect urban offtake to improve this year, which is why we shall focus heavily on scooters”, Guleria said. He added that senior HMSI executives have spent a lot of time touring rural India and found out that farmers, particularly in Gujarat and Maharashtra were still highly optimistic and despite downbeat forecasts there is no indications that the monsoon will fail.
Guleria pointed out that scooters which contributed 54 per cent to Honda’s numbers in 2014 have increased their share to 59 per cent to Honda’s numbers and if rural offtake was poor, could even rise to 64 per cent of Honda’s sales in India. “Keep in mind that the Activa is the highest selling two-wheeler in India.” Evidence for the scooter-heavy sales was evident in the fact that HMSI has grown in the first few months of 2015 despite the industry shrinking slightly.
Talking of the recent fuel-economy controversy between HMSI and Hero, Muramatsu said that fuel-economy numbers should be based on reality. He also added that HMSI will unveil a ‘revolutionary’ model at the 2016 Auto Expo; codenamed ‘AE16’ it is meant to be a ‘first in segment’ product. While HMSI did not reveal further details, it is believed that the product could be a ‘step-through’ based on the best-selling Honda Cub.