Honda aims to treble market share via new City

The company had discontinued production of the first generation Honda City cars in September. The newly launched City is 40 per cent fuel efficient than the first model. Spare parts of the earlier City cars will be available at all dealerships across the country, company officials said.

After being launched in Mumbai and Delhi, the car was unveiled in Gujarat on Monday. Officials at Landmark Honda, the authorised dealer for Honda vehicles in Gujarat, said they expect to sell at least 500 Honda City cars in the remaining five months of the fiscal in the state.

Explaining the rationale behind the phasing out of the first generation City, Rajiv Vohra, regional manager, west, Honda Siel, said: "In India there has been a practice to modify cars a bit and continue selling them. But at Honda, we believe in completely changing the car, which has a life cycle of around five years."

"We expect to more than double the number of first generation Honda City cars sold mainly because of designing of the new Honda city and its engine that is 40 per cent more fuel efficient than the first," Vohra said.

Stating that HSCL aims to be a leader in the C-segment, Vohra said the car is priced in such a way that even customers from B-plus segment (those in the range of Palio and the like) can buy one car.

The company has sold around 60,000 units of the first generation City car since its inception in 1998. Honda officials say they expect to sell 2,000 units per month of the new City car which will come to around 24,000 units a year.

"We expect to sell around 30,000 cars a year, with the Honda Accord and Honda CRV accounting for the remaining 6,000 units," said Vohra. Honda officials made it clear that spares of the first generation Honda City will be available at all Honda dealerships across the country without any problem.

"There are about 60,000 Honda City owners in India and another 3,000 across Asia, and none of them will have problems as far as spares are concerned," Vohra said.

The new City is powered with a 1.5 litre intelligent dual and sequential ignition (I-DSI) engine. Earlier this year, the company had the seventh generation Honda Accord and CR-V. The new City will be offered in seven colours - new warm silver, night hawk black, taffeta white, eternal blue, royal ruby red, graphite pearl and signet silver.

It will be available nationally through the company's 40 exclusive Honda outlets across the country.

HSCL was established in December 1995, with Honda Motor Co (Japan) and Siel Ltd (India) being the key promoters. The company figures among the top players in the Indian premium and luxury car market.

HSCL started commercial production in December 1997 with an indigenisation level of over 50 per cent, which has been raised progressively and is currently over 72 per cent. The new Honda City is at present being sold in Japan, India and other south Asian countries.