Honda plans to export India-made cars

Honda Siel Cars India on Monday said its primary focus will be the domestic market, but it does plan to export cars to Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka, a top official said.

The company presently exports component and engine parts from its factory in Rajasthan and expects to witness a turnover of Rs 112 crore (Rs 11.2 billion) this fiscal, Honda Senior Vice-President (Marketing and Sales) Jananeswar Sen said.

At present, the company has 135 dealers in 83 cities and over 60 per cent are located in small cities. By this fiscal-end, the company plans to have 143 dealers in 91 cities.

Honda on Monday launched its new car, Brio, in the Kerala market. There was a very good response to the new car in the cities where it has been launched and in the first 10 days, at least 2,000

enquiries were received, Sen said.

On the sales target, he said, "Our initial start will be slow. Due to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, things are yet to be normalised in Japan, so we are yet to receive normal delivery of critical parts."

Honda Brio is manufactured at HSCI's facility at Greater Noida, with a localisation level of over 80 per cent, Honda Zonal Head for Sales (South) Thushar Walkankar said.

The new car is available in four variants and the ex-showroom prices are: EMT (Rs 3.99 lakh), SMT (Rs 4.40 lakh), S(O)MT (Rs 4.98 lakh) and VMT (Rs 5.21 lakh).

The car comes in six colours. The company's product range in the country includes the Honda Jazz, Honda City, Honda Civic and Honda Accord.