UP most important market: Honda

 

 LUCKNOW: Honda Cars India on Wednesday forayed into the diesel segment in UP by unveiling its all new sedan- 'Amaze'. The company said that UP was the most important market for its business as it would now target tier-2 and 3 towns for its new affordable sedan. UP being home to a large number of such small towns and also people's affinity towards Honda cars have made the state a prime target for the company.

Senior vice president - marketing and sales in Honda Cars India, Jnaneshwar Sen said, "UP contributes about 7% of our national turnover. It is an emerging market and we are focusing on expanding our presence across towns here."

In Lucknow, it has 4 % market share in the hatchback (Brio) segment while 13% in sedan with its 'Honda City'. Of late, the company has been losing out to its competition due to absence in diesel segment and also affordable variants. With Amaze, the company wants to reap benefits as it claims it to deliver best mileage in the segment so far with 25.8 km/litre.

 Honda is present in 10 cities of UP - Gorakhpur, Lucknow, Kanpur, Allahabad, Agra, Meerut, Mathura, Noida, Ghaziabad and Bareilly. Across India, it is present across 97 cities in about 150 outlets. In 2014, it would expand operations up to 162 outlets across 102 cities.

The company has its facility in Greater Noida and is setting up another one in Rajasthan. The company said that it would be able to manufacture 4000-5000 Amaze units every month from its Greater Noida facility in this year. It recorded 35% growth this year as compared last year.

Sen said that the company is soon planning to launch three new variants - a revised version of Jazz (had been suspended since 2009), a 7- seater multipurpose vehicle and a compact SUV. All these variants would be present in diesel variant.

Sen added that from now onwards, they would come up with diesel variants so as to compete in the fast dieselizing market and at the same time, continue giving earlier petrol variants to the consumers. The existing line-up of petrol variants would not be changed into diesel ones.

In Lucknow, the ex-showroom price of Amaze in diesel variant would be starting from Rs 6, 26, 300 up to Rs 7, 79, 300 for the top end model. In petrol, its price starts from Rs 5, 20, 600 up to Rs 7, 70, 000 for the top model. The company has earmarked Rs 2500 crore for beefing up its new facility at Rajasthan.

 

MUKESH KUMAR 

PGDM 2ND