With at least three more diesel models, including the new Jazz and City, to follow the Amaze over the next year and half, Honda aims to double market share in the passenger vehicle market to over 5%, from 2.6% today. For Honda, one of the earliest global car makers to set up shop in India (1995), this follows recently announced expansion plans under which it is investing R2,500 crore to double output to 2.4 lakh units by the first half of 2014 and set up a new diesel engine plant.

?Now that we can address a bigger car market, the company would be happy with an over 5% market share. We are increasing production capacity as per the plan and we hope to be a much bigger player than before,? said said Raman Sharma, senior vice-president and director at Honda Cars India (HCIL).

At present, Maruti Suzuki is the market leader with a 39% market share in passenger vehicles, followed by Hyundai (14%), Tata Motors (12%), Mahindra (12%) and Toyota Kirloskar (6%).

Added Jnaneswar Sen, senior vice-president (sales and marketing) at HCIL, ?We don?t only look at market share as we feel it is a by product of end volumes. If the volumes rise faster than the market grows, market share will rise automatically.?

Two out of the four new Honda models planned in the next three years are expected to be all new models. While the Jazz will reportedly be launched in the next year, a compact utility vehicle will follow soon after based on the same platform. This will then be followed by the City and a compact MPV, sources said.

Honda?s market share in passenger vehicles had fallen for three years between FY09 (3.37%) and FY12 (2.07%) when customers moved towards diesel cars and the company could offer only petrol models. But, the introduction of the Brio compact hatch, its first mass-focussed model, helped it gain almost half a percentage point in market share in the last fiscal (FY13).

Industry analysts say that with multiple diesel models starting with the Amaze, Honda may as well target a 7-8% share of the 2.5 million passenger vehicle market.

In fact, Honda?s sales have grown 35% to an all-time high of 73,483 in FY13, after falling 8.47% in FY12 at 54,427 units.