Mumbai: Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL), the local subsidiary of the Japanese automaker, is looking to corner a larger share of the burgeoning Indian automobile market with the introduction of three model refreshes during the fiscal, the first being the second generation variant of the compact sedan Amaze, commercially launched this week.
The maker of the Honda City expects to outpace passenger vehicle (PV) industry growth this fiscal, led by traction from tier-II and III cities primarily for the Amaze, according to Rajesh Goel, senior vice president and director of sales and marketing at the firm.
The other two models, to be launched during the second half of the fiscal, are the executive sedan Civic and CR-V SUV (sport utility vehicle).
The Amaze has been priced quite aggressively, beginning from Rs5.59 lakh (ex-showroom, all India) and going up to Rs8.99 lakh across petrol and diesel variants. The first generation of the model, on sale from April 2013 to March this year, sold 2.57 lakh units.
The model, with up to 96% localised content, will provide Honda the opportunity to expand business across markets, according to Gaku Nakanishi, president and chief executive at the firm.
“We are confident that the All New Amaze will become one of the strongest pillars of the HCIL business,” he said.
The company is also confident that Amaze will see enough demand to utilise idle capacity, which is currently about 40% of an installed capacity of 280,000 units across two plants.
During the fiscal gone by, Honda sold 170,026 units, an 8.08% growth over the year-ago, according to data provided by industry body the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam). In comparison, the PV industry grew 7.89% to 3.29 million units.
During April, the company sold 9,143 units, a fall of 36.86% from the year-ago, on the back of the model rundown of the outgoing Amaze and a higher base effect caused by unusually high sales of the new-generation City and WR-V, which were launched last year.