Honda to relaunch phased-out models

Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co Ltd will relaunch most of its phased-out models and increase sourcing from India, following a record performance of its business in the country.

The carmaker will relaunch the compact Jazz and premium sedan Accord with new generation specs. The sports utility vehicle, CR-V, has already been relaunched with new features.

The only model which will not be brought back will be the premium sedan Civic.

The company also plans to double sourcing of auto parts to about ₹600 crore this fiscal.

Jnaneshwar Sen, Honda’s Vice-President for Sales & Marketing, told BusinessLine all the cars being relaunched will be next generation models. Civic is not being revived because the segment it plays in is showing no signs of growth, he pointed out.

Sen said another car which was relaunched successfully was the Honda City sedan in January. Since then, it has sold about 50,000 units with nearly 50 per cent of them coming from the diesel version.

Sen added the carmaker’s parent sees India as a huge growth opportunity for its products. It will now double the sourcing of auto parts such as engine parts for South Asian countries and Brazil and the UK.

Honda posted a record performance last fiscal with a whopping 83 per cent increase in car sales at 1.34 lakh units, coming on the back of a 37 per cent rise in the previous year.

Honda’s record sales assume significance given that the domestic sales of all car makers during the same period was down 4.65 per cent to 17,86,899 units.

Sen said key reasons of high sales were the launch of the diesel engine and the introduction of the compact sedan Amaze, which is now expected to cross the 1-lakh sales mark soon. “We did a lot of groundwork and were able to execute our plans much better,” he said.

Spurred by the success of its Indian operations and neighbouring region, Honda’s parent has set the target for the entire Asia-Oceania region at 1.2 million units by 2017 with 20 per cent of it expected to come from India.

However, with the kind of growth Indian business is witnessing, Honda may achieve the target much sooner than 2017.

In February this year, Honda opened a new plant in Rajasthan with an installed capacity of 1.2 lakh units.

This is the company’s second plant after Greater Noida near Delhi.

Honda has invested a total of about ₹6,300 crore in its Indian operations and has a manufacturing capacity of 2.4 lakh units a year.

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