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Within a fortnight of its launch at the Auto Expo at New Delhi, Honda Motorcycle & Scooters India Pvt Ltd (HMSI)’s fun bike Navi has received ‘encouraging response’ with 500 bookings through online registrations, mainly from the metros.
HMSI officials are confident of achieving robust sales for the two-wheeler, which is gaining popularity among youngsters.
“Since its launch on February 3 at the Auto Expo, we have received 500 bookings through its mobile app. The automatic 110-cc model has engine equivalent to our popular model Activa. We wanted to provide something additional to scooter, and this bike was designed. The name of the model is an abbreviation of New Additional Value for India, that is Navi, which will target the youth,” said V Sridhar, Senior Vice-President and Director, corporate office production, HMSI.
Priced at ₹39,500, Navi has technical specifications similar to the Activa with automatic transmission and engine power of 110 cc, but weighs 7 kg less than the latter.
The production of Navi will begin in March at HMSI’s Alwar plant in Rajasthan. Deliveries will start from April onwards.
Rising demandAccording to senior company officials, automatic scooter demand in India has seen sharp growth over the past three years. The share of scooters in the total two-wheeler sales is expected to increase further. “India is catching up fast with the growing scooterisation in developed economies and ASEAN nations. Demand for scooters is growing fast, we are trying to match the demand. We had 30,000 Honda scooters waiting at the close to 2015. So our scooter-only plant at Gujarat can meet the demand,” said Sridhar.
Set up with an investment of around ₹1,100 crore, HMSI's fourth plant was inaugurated at Vithalapur on Wednesday by Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel.
The company’s first scooter-only plant in India will produce 1.2 million automatic scooters per annum. Currently, it will make automatic scooter models, Activa and Dio. The new facility is spread across 250 acres and employs about 3,000 workers.
Honda’s total two-wheeler capacity increased 26 per cent to 5.8 million units, from 4.6 million units earlier.
The new facility is spread across 250 acres and employs about 3,000 workers.
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