Honda Cars India Limited. (HCIL) is strengthening its export business with the addition of left hand drive Honda City
Honda Cars India Limited. (HCIL) is committed to exports of the 5th gen Honda City to Left Hand Drive (LHD) countries. A first for HCIL. 5th gen Honda City (both right hand and left hand drive) are the newest inclusion in Honda’s export business from India.
This will be done in more than 12 Left Hand Drive countries in 2021. Initial batch of exports are headed to Middle East countries. The development is in line to target 3-fold increase in export volumes from India.
With this, Honda has started production of Left Hand Drive City in India. The maiden dispatch went out from Pipavav port in Gujarat and Ennore port in Chennai. HCIL began exports of RHD City to South Africa since August 2020. And to Nepal and Bhutan from Oct 2020.
Honda cars localisation
Gaku Nakanishi, President & CEO, Honda Cars India Ltd said, “Honda City has been the benchmark of sedans in India and addition of exports of its Left Hand Drive model to completely new destinations is a great opportunity for us to strengthen our India business.
We have invested in creating an expansive world-class manufacturing facility at Tapukara which can produce both right hand and left hand drive models that allows us to manage demand for domestic and international consumers. The 5th Generation City has been very well appreciated in the Indian market and we hope that we will be able to replicate this success and satisfy our global customers with its best quality & performance.”
HCIL has been manufacturing all its volume models with more than 90 percent localization. Export models include Amaze, WR-V & City to Nepal, Bhutan, South Africa and SADC countries. 5th Generation Honda City (both right hand and left hand drive) is the newest addition to its export line-up.
Honda cars domestic sales
While Honda cars domestic sales continues to be limited, in the sedan segment it holds its prominence. Its ever popular Honda City led from the top last month at wholesales of 2,720 units. The month prior, sales were above 3.5k units. The company has used a dual strategy to sell both the 4th gen and 5th gen Honda City simultaneously.
In a year that has been plagued by challenges, HCIL saw its domestic market share dip to just under 3 percent. Sales through 2020 fell to 70,593 units, down from 1,34,741 units. Sales decline is reported at 47.61 percent at volume loss of 64,148 units.