Honda on an Expansion Spree

Honda, name once associated with Hero, now is single and needs to expand. Honda, which now plays as Honda Motorcycles and Scooters, India, is planning to expand itself intensively. It has announced an investment of Rs 1000 crore expansion for the fiscal year 2012-13. Also, Honda has announced to bring in a new India-specific brand identity with a new slogan. Not just this, to stay in competition, Honda has unveiled seven new bikes to be launched for the Indian roads just two days ago at the Auto Expo.

“Till now the investment is Rs 1,800 crore. We will invest Rs 1,000 crore next year," Mr. Naresh Kumar Rattan, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India, was heard while unveiling the seven new models that will be supposedly launched over a period of next 4 months. He was also heard mentioning a third new plant in Karnataka, thus expanding the Japanese Honda Motors from Haryana and Rajasthan. To quote him "we have 1,200 outlets which will go up to 1,500 crore by the end of this year".

Since Honda has exited Hero Honda totally last year after selling off its 26% stake, they are in tough competition with Hero MotoCorp. And the Auto Expo showed them to be well prepared to fight head on. The company plans to increase its 22 lakhs per unit production to 40 lakhs units per year, thus, almost doubling up the sales. The third largest two-wheeler manufacturer dreams of climbing up the ladder by targeting 1 crore units by 2020, and eventually increasing its market share to 30%.

Seems Honda has already started running on the race track. Auto Expo saw the unveiling of seven new two-wheelers from Honda’s satchel., out of which five are exclusively for Indian subcontinent masses, the other two being aimed at some specific segment. Honda Yuga, 110 cc bike, Honda CBR 150R, New Honda CB Shine are among the new launches. New Honda Dio is a revamped scoot, revamped absolutely stylishly. Honda VT 1300 CX, a chopper, Honda CBR 1000RR, a sports bike, will be two of the international launches.