At the Auto Expo 2014, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) announced a roadmap for India which the company calls ?Aggressive and Ambitious?.
?Aggressive here means capacity expansion that we will achieve with our fourth plant in Gujarat. And our ambition is signified by the nine new products that we have showcased here at the Auto Expo,? said Yadvinder S Guleria, vice-president, sales & marketing, HMSI. Since 2011, the company has grown from one to three plants currently, and the Gujarat plant that will come up near Ahmedabad will have an annual capacity of 1.2 million units.
?Once the Narendra Modi ruled Gujarat plant is up and running by 2015, we will have a total capacity of 5.8 million units annually,? Guleria added. The new plant is being set up with an investment of Rs 1,100 crore. ?With the existing three plants covering north and south India, HMSI wanted to reach closer to the vast market in the west,? he said.
Takanobu Ito, president, CEO & representative director, Honda Motor Company, Japan, announced at the Expo that HMSI sales volumes have already reached second position for Honda?s two-wheeler business worldwide. ?We believe India may soon be the top market for Honda,? Ito said. HMSI is hopeful of closing this financial year with total sales of 3.75 million.
The company also showcased nine products for the Indian market, which include the new Activa 125 and the new CBR 650F. The latter would be made in India by 2015-16 and would be HMSI?s first superbike to be made in India. Keita Muramatsu, president & CEO, HMSI, said, ?As the only Honda which is free to realise its dreams for India, we are moving ahead on full throttle. In fact, our pavilion theme is ?Technology meets Emotion?. Then, our customer-driven cutting-edge R&D from our Technical Center and superior technology products will be supported by aggressive capacity expansion and speedy addition of new 500 touch-points to our network. Our new product line-up will include the all-new Activa 125 and soon-to-be-launched CBR 650F, which is Honda?s largest displacement motorcycle for India that is made in India.?
