Japanese automobile maker Honda inaugurated their new two-wheeler plant in Narasapura, Kolar (Karnataka) aiming to increase their total capacity to 4.6 million units by the end of FY-14.
The new plant, built with a total investment of Rs 1,350 crore, will have a total capacity of 12 lakh units but an additional 6 lakh units will be added by the end of the FY-14 taking the total capacity of the plant to 1.8 million units, Keita Muramatsu, President and CEO- Honda Motorcycle and Scooter said after the inauguration of the plant near here on Tuesday.
This would be the automaker’s third unit in the country and employs 4,500 people.
Honda motorcycles registered 49% growth and scooters grew 18% taking their two wheeler growth to 31% last fiscal, Yadvinder Singh Guleria, Vice President (Sales & Marketing) told Express. The company will be producing the Dream series bikes and the Activa scooters in the new plant.
On whether it will focus on any particular segment due to fluctuations in demand, Guleria said, “we have two lines here which have a capacity of 6 lakh units per belt and this is flexible. This is to ensure that we can use the production lines as per the demand of the product.”
Refusing to divulge details about their lineup of launches, the company said that they would get more models and variants into the 100+ cc category to remain in competition and better their chances to improve their market share. “As stated earlier we want to take our company’s global sales revenue share from the existing 18% to 30%. India is our top three markets,”Guleria said.
On exports, Muramatsu said that the company will start exports to Bangladesh by the end of the fiscal.