Honda Cars India plans to double exports in FY2014-15

Jayashankar Menon | @TheDollarBiz

(L-R) Rohit Kumar, Zonal Head South, Honda Cars India Ltd; Shigeru Yamazaki, Director, Honda Cars India Ltd; Jnaneswar Sen, Senior Vice-President (Sales & Marketing), Honda Cars India Ltd at a product launch

  Honda Cars India Limited (HCIL), the domestic arm of the Japanese car manufacturer Honda, is planning to export 10,000 made in India cars in FY2014-15, which is almost double the 5,500 vehicles exported in the previous year. Though much smaller in number when compared to major car exporters from India -- Hyundai Motor India exported around 2.3 lakh units in FY2013-14, Nissan India exported around 1.16 lakh units, and Maruti Suzuki exported around 1 lakh units -- HCIL’s export target for FY2014-15 signals a tilt towards the Indian market and exports from India.  HCIL’s Noida plant has an annual capacity of manufacturing 120,000 cars, and the company plans to boost car production in its Tapukara facility by commencing a second production shift. This would help Honda India to boost overall production to over 240,000 cars and help meet its target of 50% surge in sales to 200,000 units in the Indian market in FY2014-15. According to HCIL, the company has so far sold about 56,427 units in India during April – July 2014, up about 40% from around 40,350 units sold during the same period last year. Jnaneswar Sen, Senior Vice-President (Marketing &Sales) Honda Cars India Ltd. said that Honda Mobilio has received a good response in India with over 10,000 bookings since its launch on 23 July 2014. The company hopes Mobilio and other new models such as Honda Vision XS-1 will help it gain share rapidly in India’s car export market which has almost doubled in the last five years to around 5.5 lakh units in FY2013-14, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). HCIL’s export sales so far this year have been steady. HCIL has exported around 2,517 cars during April – July 2014. The company mainly exports cars to destinations such as South Africa, Nepal and Bhutan.