MUMBAI: Surprised by the huge response to its 'by India, for India' bike Navi launched this April, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) is planning to double its production to around 1 lakh units soon.

The Japanese two-wheeler major, which is inching closer to unseating the decades-old market leader Hero MotoCorp,replica watches had unveiled the Navi at the Delhi Auto Expo in February at price of under Rs 40,000. It was rolled out commercially in April.

Testing the market for a very stripped-down model with the Navi, which was fully planned, designed, and produced for the local market, Honda had expected to sell only round 2,000 units a month in the first year.

But it has already got huge backlog, and therefore, the plan to double the output.

"We have been really surprised by the humongous response to the Navi. It's really exceeded our expectations. We have, therefore, decided to almost double our capacity to 90,000 to 1 lakh units soon," the company's Senior Vice-President for Sales and Marketing Yadvinder Singh Guleria told PTI.

At the launch, the company had said it would be happy if it could sell 2,000 units a month and had an installed capacity of 50,000 per annum.

But Guleria said even though Navi was developed only for India, which became the largest market for Honda globally in June this year, overtaking Indonesia, they are shipping the bike to Nepal now.

"Last month alone we shipped as many as 500 units to the Himalayan nation," Guleria said, adding, "going forward, the company may look at exporting the bike to other Saarc markets like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka as well."

Asked about investment for the additional capacity for Navi, which is being manufactured at the 1.2 million units per annum Tapukara plant in Rajasthan, he said no additional investment is needed as they have a flexible assembly line.

With the Navi or 'New additional value for India,' Honda has truly disrupted the domestic two-wheeler market as it has created an entirely new segment of fun riding, he said.

Navi is powered by a 110-cc Honda HET engine with automatic transmission and is the first 100 per cent Honda India R&D- from concept development to commercial production.

Source : Buoyed by huge demand, Honda to double production of Navi

NEW DELHI: Country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki BSE 1.15 % India continued its hold on the Indian passenger vehicles segment with six of its models featuring in the top ten selling list in the first half of this fiscal, thereby helping the company maintain its market share. 

According to data from Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), Maruti Suzuki India's (MSI) entry level car Alto retained its position as the best selling model in April-September period this fiscal with 1,20,720 units, albeit a decline of 7.93 per cent as compared with 1,31,128 units in the year-ago period. 

The company's hatchback WagonR moved up to the panerai replica watches second spot during the period selling 86,939 units as against 84,660 units in the year-ago period, a growth of 2.69 per cent. 

On the third spot was MSI's compact sedan Dzire selling 81,926 units despite a decline of 20.95 per cent from 1,03,651 units in the same period last fiscal. 

Maruti Swift was the fourth best selling model in the first six month of 2016-17 with the sale of 80,756 units as against 1,06,911, while Hyundai Motor India's compact hatchback Grand i10 was fifth with 71,703 units sold during the period as compared to 58,078 units a year ago. 

The South Korean car maker's premium hatchback Elite i20 was sixth best selling model clocking 61,784 units in the April-September period as against 66,037 units in the corresponding period last fiscal. 

Renault India's entry level car Kwid made it to the seventh position with a massive jump to 56,028 units as compared with just 381 units last year. 

Maruti's new models -- premium hatchback Baleno with 54,947 and compact SUV Vitara Brezza at 50,859 units were eighth and ninth best selling models, with the list rounded off by Hyundai's SUV Creta at 47,923 units as against 23,117 in April-

With six of its models in top ten best selling list, MSI maintained its share of 47.2 per cent in the domestic passenger vehicles market. 

The company sold a total of 7,05,287 units in the April-September period this fiscal while the total industry passenger vehicles sales stood at 14,94,039 units. 

In the same period last year, the company's market share was 47.29 per cent selling 6,28,963 units out of an industry total of 13,29,874 units.

Source : Six Maruti models like WagonR, SUV Vitara Brezza, Baleno in top ten list in H1 FY17

MUMBAI: Renault recently infused Rs 500 crore into the Indian subsidiary and is considering investing another Rs 2,500-3,000 crore over the next four years to support a major product push that the French carmaker has planned for this growing automotive market. 

Renault India Pvt Ltd allotted 50 crore shares valuing Rs 10 each to Renault Group BV a few months ago, according to filings with the Registrar of Companies. It was the second recent investment in the Indian unit, after a Rs 1,100 crore equity infusion in December 2015. 

Encouraged by the success of the Kwid small car, Renault is working out an aggressive product strategy for India. It plans to introduce one new product every year and bring SUVs, MPVs, crossovers and sedans priced under Rs 8 lakh to challenge the market dominance of Maruti Suzuki BSE 1.10 % and Hyundai Motor India. A large part of the planned investment will be in products and R&D resources, as manufacturing capacity is already in place.

"The sense of confidence in India is very high," said a person with knowledge of the company's plans. "The brand's presence in the top three global markets — China, US and Japan — is fairly modest. Now it has got a headstart in India, which is set to become the third largest market in the world in the coming decade. With a CMF-A platform, there are lot more segments the brand plans to address in coming years." 

CMF-A is a modular platform that can be easily tweaked to suit products in different segments. That will suit its India plans. Renault is seeking to bridge the gap between the Kwid and the Duster SUV with more B-segment cars in the sub-Rs 8 lakh market, as well as drive in a more premium SUV — internally codenamed HHA, it is likely to be launched during the festive season of next year and take on models such as the Mahindra XUV 500. At Renault, the message to the Indian team is clear, "think big", Bernard Cambier, the company's chairman for the Africa-Middle East-India Region, said during a recent interaction with Indian media. 

"I am fighting for investments and more models. We have a big engineering centre, robust purchasing department, the aim is to work towards more 100 per cent localised Indian models. Clearly the longterm ambition is to be in the top 3 — the podium — if not, then you are not a serious challenger," Cambier said, while declining to divulge specific information on products or investments. 

Source : Renault may invest Rs 3,000 crore to back new launches in India

Hyundai Motor India Limited revealed the new launch date for its new SUV, the Tucson. The SUV that sits between the Creta and the Santa Fe will enter market on November 14.

The Korean carmaker was originally scheduled to launch the Tucson on October 24. The launch date was then postponed citing unavoidable reasons by the carmaker.

The Tucson is a new name in India. Hyundai had sold the first generation of the Tucson in India during the 2005-2010 timeframe. It was discontinued due to poor sales owing to steep pricing. The new version is in its third generation and comes with Fluidic 2.0 design philosophy in line with other new Hyundai cars.

The face of the SUV is highlighted by a large hexagonal grille in chrome. It is flanked by sweptback LED headlamps. Tucson has more rounded body panels in line with Santa Fe. The raked rear windscreen is complemented by slim sleek tail lamps. Hyundai Tucson measures 4,475mm in length, 1,850mm in width and 1,645mm in height and comes with a wheelbase of 2,670mm.

The SUV is built on a new platform that offers larger cabin space according to Hyundai. The interior will get leather upholstery for the seats, while instrument panel and steering wheel will get leather wrapping. The India-spec version is also expected to get Android Auto feature, 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system and six airbags.

Hyundai Tucson will be powered by a 2.0-litre CRDi diesel engine tuned in two state of tunes -- 135bhp and 180bhp -- mated to either a six-speed manual or automatic transmission.

Hyundai dealers have already started taking bookings for the new SUV for a token amount of Rs 25,000. The Tucson is expected to get a starting price of Rs 18 lakh.

Source : Hyundai Tucson SUV confirmed for India launch on November 14

HYDERABAD: Japanese car major Honda plans to introduce new products, including SUV and bigger sedans, as well as add more features in future models to regain lost ground in the Indian market. 

Aware of the change in market dynamics with a big shift from A and B segments to premium side, the company is gearing up to meet the new demand in India. 

"The market is changing. We are seeing a big shift from A, B categories to upper segment and that's why Maruti and Hyundai are also trying to move to the premium side. So, we are also carefully monitoring this segment movement," Honda Cars India President and CEO Yoichiro Ueno told PTI. 

Besides, there is growth in the SUV segment so that's also a big change, he added. 

Asked if the company plans to launch a new SUV model soon, Ueno said: "You can expect, yes," he said. 

When asked if the model could be HR-V, he said: "It really depends on customers' voice. If there is a lot of demand or request, then we might look at it." 

Admitting that the gap between products in different segments has not helped the company, Ueno said: "There is a lot of demand to upgrade from City to bigger cars and unfortunately, we don't have a bigger car... Especially the dealers are requesting. They don't want to lose these City customers to other brands." 

Ueno added: "We are receiving a lot of request to reinforce the SUV market, we have CR-V but practically City is the flagship model." 

Stressing on the need to be nimble-footed and deliver products which customers want in a fast changing market, Ueno said: "We think it is very important to catch up." 

When asked if the company plans to develop models specifically for Indian market, Ueno said: "At the moment, our strategy is to bring global models rather than exclusively develop for any specific market." 

The shift in demand from diesel to petrol in India has also resulted in the company losing ground and it was late to adapt to the changes. 

"Unfortunately, from end of last year to this year, there was mismatching of the inventory. Our inventory was not matching the market demand," he said. 

However, by July this year, "dealer supplies normalised and so the situation is now coming back to normal". 

In April-September this fiscal, the company's domestic sales were down 23 per cent at 74,855 units while its sales in September fell 18.77 per cent to 15,034 units. 

On Honda's current product line-up, Ueno said the BR-V is doing well and "it's on track" of the target set by the company. However it is not doing as well as some other brands. I think we might be able to increase sales". 

He admitted that there is a mismatch in the company's product line-up and expectations of the customers. 

"Currently, we are concentrating on really matching price with the competitors. Maybe, the specifications are not meeting the customers' expectations. So, such kinds of discrepancies I think are happening," he said. 

Ueno felt that the company cannot afford to give up on volume products like Brio and Amaze and would like to reposition them in the market with better features. 

"They are big volume market (products). However, maybe, the positioning in the segment can be aligned. Honda cars have been on the premium side within the segments. I think we can do it," he said. 

Honda is receiving a lot of feedback from customers that it should have more features even if the the price might be on the higher side. 

"For the future models, we are planning to add more features. We were thinking that Indian car market is price sensitive. However, customer expectations have to be balanced," Ueno made it clear. 

According to the CEO, the company has just taken a price hike and most probably will take a call again on the issue only next year. 

"Exchange rate is tough. So, if it continues to be so, then slight adjustment may be necessary, but definitely not this year. We have just increased the prices. This year, we won't touch the prices. Next year due to GST, there might be a one-time alignment," he said. 

Asked if the company would keep selling MPV Mobilio, he said: "We will continue. Sales are gradually increasing. So, we will keep it."