Japanese auto major Honda Cars on Tuesday said it will increase its components sourcing from India by a little over 40% to Rs 1,000 crore in the current fiscal, as against Rs 700 crore in the last fiscal.
India is becoming an important market for Honda in terms of both production as well parts sourcing, said Katsushi Inoue, president and CEO, Honda Cars India. To a question, he said: “We are increasing our components sourcing to Rs 1,000 crore in the current fiscal. Honda sources mainly engine components from a number of vendors here. More than quantity, our focus will be on quality.”
Inoue, who was in Chennai to launch the new Jazz, said India reached the fourth position for the company globally in terms of sales, after the US, China and Japan and the momentum will grow further. To be competitive in the Indian market, besides quality the company is also betting big on localisation.
Jnaneswar Sen, vice president (marketing and sales), said the new Jazz is cost competitive mainly due to its 95% localisation. Jazz will be the fourth pillar for the company after City, Amaze and Mobilio. Except CR-V, most of the models come with localisation level of 90%.
The company is increasing its distribution network and by the end of 2016, it will have 300 dealers covering 200 cities, as compared to 243 dealers across 160 cities as of March 31, 2015. The company will invest Rs 380 crore in Rajasthan to increase capacity to 60,000 units.
