Saturday, March 1, 2008

News : Honda Siel expects approval for Civic Hybrid soon


Mr T. Oyama, President & CEO, Asian Honda Motor Co, and Mr M. Takedagawa, President & CEO, Honda Siel Cars India (right), at Honda’s new production facility at Greater Noida on Monday.

Honda Siel Cars India on Monday said that it expects to receive homologation for its Civic Hybrid from the Automotive Research Association of India within the next 10 days.

The company also said that while it did not expect much volumes from the hybrid car, it was primarily to showcase its technological competitiveness.

“Even if we sell 300-500 units of Civic Hybrid, it is okay. Our purpose is to show the technology which has been present in other countries,” said Mr Masahiro Takedagawa, President and CEO, Honda Siel Cars India, at the inauguration of its facility in Greater Noida.

Mr Takedagawa said that the company planned to sell 90,000 units next fiscal, a growth of 35 per cent compared to the current fiscal. Its new sports utility vehicle CR-V, sedans Accord and Civic Hybrid would contribute to increased sales. Honda is also looking at expanding its dealership network over the next three years to establish its presence in newer cities.

“By the end of March, we would have 80 dealerships in 51 cities. In the next three years, we would double our dealerships to 160 by adding 39 new cities,” said Mr Jnaneswar Sen, Senior General Manager, Sales.

Honda has expanded its capacity at its plant in Greater Noida to one lakh units from 50,000 units. Besides this, the company’s second plant which is being commissioned at Rajasthan could also be scaled to over 2.5 lakh units per annum from its initial capacity of 60,000 units.

The company plans to use its Greater Noida facility to manufacture its current range of products and the second plant in Rajasthan for compact cars. This includes Jazz, a premium hatchback, which is being considered, and another small car for which the company has begun work and expects to roll out in three- four years time.

No comments: