Japanese carmaker Honda Cars has said its proposed sport utility vehicle (SUV) will be launched in India in the festival season this year or in the first half of FY24. It added that its overall production capacity could be increased to 200,000 units per year over time from the current 180,000.
As part of its portfolio restructuring exercise, the company will be launching a new car every year for the next five years and look at increasing the market share.
Honda
He further said the company hopes to close the current fiscal with around 90,000 units of domestic sales, which could be around 8% growth in comparison with the previous year. The second half of the next fiscal could see around 30% growth in sales as the company would be launching its new SUV in the country, he added.
Speaking about Honda City, he said: “City is the strongest pillar of business and synonymous to our presence in India. This is the latest version of the City based on the fifth-generation model. As India is the lead market for the City, the new version was first launched in India.”
According to Murata, the car gets a sharper and sportier look along with several feature enhancements in both petrol and hybrid versions.
“Most importantly, HCIL is now expanding the application of Honda Sensing – our advanced driver assist system to the petrol model as well. The Honda Sensing was first introduced with Honda City e:HEV last year and the technology has been much appreciated by our customers. This technology will be available in majority of the variants of Honda City now,” he said.
The City e:HEV is also being expanded by introduction of a new variant which is at `1 lakh lesser price point than the current ZX variant. “We want to popularise the strong hybrid technology among larger set of customers,” he said.
Kunal Behl, vice-president, marketing & sales, HCIL, said around 95% localisation has been achieved in City production in India. “For hybrid, there may be more parts coming from outside,” he said.
Currently, the company has a 60% capacity utilisation. It has a manufacturing facility at Tapukara in Rajasthan.
On network expansion, he said the company currently has 326 outlets and fairly covered across the country. “As of now we think we are there across the country, but as and when we need more dealers, we will go for expansion,” he added.