Financial meltdown in the US will not hamper Honda Motor Company?s profit forecast and sales substantially, feel company officials.
?I don?t think there will be any substantial impact on our profits and sales owing to our strong product portfolio,? said Takeo Fukui, president and CEO, Honda Motor Company.
He added that company will make a formal announcement regarding the same next month. Incidentally, in July, Honda had trimmed its operating profit forecast to 630 billion yen ($5.95 billion) for the year April-March 2009 from 650 billion yen projected earlier.
This was done to account for extra burden from rising input costs and steel prices. The company, however, had kept its net profit forecast unchanged at 490 billion yen.
According to Fukui, high oil prices necessitate a car which is smaller Jazz-currently Honda?s smallest car in the global market-for Indian roads.
?The company will roll-out Jazz in India next year. But it is also looking at a second, smaller car for the country subsequently,? said M Takedagawa, president and CEO, Honda Siel Cars India at the launch of the company?s new third generation Honda City. Powered by a 1.5 litre i-VTEC engine, the City comes in three variants and is priced Rs 7.7-8.9 lakh.
Fumihiko Ike, MD, Honda Motor Company said that given India?s free-trade agreement (FTA) Asean, Honda plans to source components for its manufacturing sites at other locations from India. ?The FTA will enable Indian vendors to supply to our global operations,? said Ike.