Honda aims to sell 50,000 units of Amaze in FY'14

Japanese auto major Honda plans to sell around 50,000 units of its sedan 'Amaze' in the current fiscal in India and launch five models in the country over the next three years, a senior company official said on Thursday.

Honda Cars India Ltd would be able to manufacture only 4,000-5,000 units of Amaze per month this year as its limited by the current production capacity, company's senior vice-president (sales and marketing) Jnaneswar Sen said at the car's launch in the city.

"Our current plan is to make 4,000-5,000 cars (Amaze) a month.

“Our capacity is 120,000 units which include all our models.

What's available for this model is 4,000-5,000 units a month," Sen said, adding: "We are limited by capacity as of now".

The company hopes to sell ‘roughly’ 50,000 units of 'Amaze', which marks its foray into the diesel segment, in India in the current financial year, he said.

Honda launched its much-awaited entry level sedan Amaze in New Delhi at a price range of Rs 499,000 to Rs 760,000 (ex-showroom, Delhi) on April 11.

The model is the company's first diesel offering in India. Its wholly-owned arm Honda Cars India Ltd is offering the car in petrol option as well.

While the diesel option will be priced between Rs 599,000 and Rs 760,000, the petrol version will be available at a price range of Rs 499,000 to Rs 750,000.

Prices for both the variants are as per the company's official website and for ex-showroom Delhi.

HCIL recently announced that it would invest Rs 2,500 crore (Rs 25 billion) to double its capacity to 240,000 units in India by the first half of next financial year.

Sen said 63 per cent of the total Amaze sales is expected to come from Tier-II, Tier-III and upcountry markets.

The company expects to catch up in ‘heavily dieseled’ states such as Kerala, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh.

Sen said HCIL plans to launch five models over the next 3 years -- entirely new models and full model-changes in the existing ones. Next generation Jazz would be launched in 2014.

HCIL plans to open 12 new dealer outlets in the current fiscal, taking their number to 162 in 102 cities from 150 in 97 cities now.

While overall passenger car sales grew by one per cent in 2012-13 in India, the growth for HCIL had been more than 35 per cent during the period, with petrol-only car sales of 73,000 units.

"If we are able to sell 1.2 lakh units this year, our growth would be 66 per cent," Sen said.

HCIL plans to introduce diesel cars in most new models in the next few years in India, where it's ready for exponential growth.

With offerings of both petrol and diesel cars and new models in the coming years, HCIL is totally geared up for ‘new offensive’ in the Indian market, he added.

Honda Amaze | Photograph, courtesy, Honda