Honda prepares to weather diesel car storm
Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) today launched refreshed premium hatchback, ‘Jazz’, priced lower than its existing model, at Rs 5.5 lakh to Rs 6.06 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).
This A2 segment car, powered by a 1.2 litre petrol engine, gives a mileage of 16.7 kmpl.
“Honda Brio which starts production next month will, bring considerable economies of scope and scale to our operations as Jazz and Brio use the same engine. This combined with our supply chain efficiencies, R&D effort and manufacturing efficiencies will considerably bring down cost,” said Mr Jnaneswar Sen, Senior Vice-President (Sales and Marketing).
“The new Jazz is 76 per cent localised. With Brio our localisation level will be over 80 per cent,” he added.
The company at present utilises 60 per cent of the 100,000 cars capacity of its Noida plant.
“The company faced severe supply-side crunch owing to the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. Till last financial year we were selling nearly 500 Jazz per month, but the figure almost halved during April-June 2011, owing to the crises,” said Mr Sen.
“We hope to get back to our original sales number in next three months,” he added.
The new Jazz has three variants and is available in five different colours. It will be sold across 80 cities and 120 dealerships.
The existing ‘Jazz’, which was launched in 2009, was priced between Rs 7.12 lakh and Rs 7.56 lakh. Other cars in the segment include: Maruti Swift, Hyundai i20, Volkswagon Polo and Skoda Fabia.
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