In current fiscal, Honda almost doubled its market share from 14 percent to 26 percent, growing at a rate of 25 percent. While Hero has recorded only a modest 8 percent growth, in the market that grew 12 percent to 1.09 crore units in first eight months.
Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) is a fully-owned local subsidiary of Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (Japan), which is the world’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer by value.Such growth is shown in spite of huge capacity constraints that has led to booking backlog of around one lakh motorbikes and scooters. The company is almost saturated on the 46 lakh installed capacity, and until the fourth plant in Gujarat becomes functional, in 2016, waiting period for the products won’t come down.
And by the time the new manufacturing facility is erected, HMSI would be ready with new budget range of motorcycles and scooters for the country, reveals Economic Times. They will be highly affordable, according to HMSI President and CEO, Keita Muramatsu, but are assured not to be low-cost products, in quality and functionality perspectives.
New products are currently being developed at Manesar-based Research & Development centre, that houses more than 200 engineers, mostly from India. The new two-wheelers would be based on improvised iterations of existing platforms, or totally new products, depending on feasibility for low-cost production. They would all be out in the market in 2 to 3 years.
Honda already sells low cost motorcycles in South Africa, which are priced in the range of $600. Apart from low cost motorcycles, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India will also launch a range of new and powerful motorcycles. By 2017, they aim to launch a range of new vehicles, of which includes many completely new products. By 2017, the company also aims to increase dealer network to 6,000 from today’s 3,400. All this will help Honda achieve their dream of toppling Hero MotoCorp and becoming the largest two wheeler manufacturer in the world.
