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Honda halts City production for August, to shift plant to Rajasthan

Honda says decision to shift production unit of City is aimed at meeting the rising demand.

Honda Cars India (HCIL) is temporarily suspending production of its flagship sedan City this month as it shifts manufacturing of the car to its Tapukara facility in Rajasthan from Greater Noida.

The company said it will resume production of the car that is being rolled out from its Greater Noida plant in the first week of next month.

The company said its decision to shift the production unit of all-new Honda City to Tapukara plant is aimed at meeting the rising demand. There will be no production of the Honda City in August 2014. The production will resume in first week of September 2014.

With the commencement of production of the newly launched mid-size MPV Honda Mobilio at the Greater Noida plant, it was decided to shift the production of Honda City to Tapukara plant to be able to cater to the strong demand for all the models. HCIL’s Tapukara plant has an installed capacity of 1,20,000 units per annum and is currently running on single shift. It is currently producing Honda Amaze since February 2014 when the assembly operations began in this plant.

The move aims at achieving domestic sale of 300,000 units per annum by 2016 against current sales of around 1,50,000 units.

Jnaneswar Sen, senior vice-president (marketing and sales) Honda Cars India had said on a recent Chennai visit that the company will consider introducing second shift soon at Tapukara plant due to rising demand of all products. The cumulatively sales of Honda City for January-July 2014 period stood at 53,605 units.

Sen said: ?The shift of City production to Tapukara will ensure better availability and timely deliveries of Honda City and the newly launched Mobilio. We have received an overwhelming response for City and Mobilio, and it is necessary to maximise production at both the plants.” Mobilio bookings already crossed the 10,000 mark since its launch in early July.

The fourth generation Honda City has been successful in India since its launch in January and has firmly established itself as the segment leader with more than 50% market share in the segment.

The HCIL plant in Tapukara is spread over an area of 450 acres. The facility is an integrated manufacturing unit including all functions of forging, press shop, powertrain shop, weld shop, paint shop, plastic moulding, engine assembly, frame assembly and engine testing facility.

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First published on: 06-08-2014 at 01:14 IST
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