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Buoyed by the success of its compact sedan Amaze, Japanese auto giant Honda Motor Co expects its Indian operations to account for 20% of its total volume sales in the Asia-Oceania region in the current financial year.
The company's wholly-owned arm, Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL) said it is expecting to contribute 25% of 12 lakh units that its parent targets to sell in the region by the end of 2016-2017 financial year.
"Our aim is to sell 6 lakh cars in the Asia-Oceania region in the current financial year (2013-14). Of this, India should account for about 20% ," Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL) Senior Vice-President Marketing and Sales Jnaneswar Sen told PTI.
During the last financial year (2012-13), Honda Cars India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tokyo-headquartered Honda Motor Co, had sold around 73,000 units in India. It currently sells five models in the country.
Honda expects the contribution from India to increase to 25% in volume terms by the end of 2016-2017 financial year. It aims to sell 12 lakh units in the Asia-Oceania region by that period.
"By the end of 2016-17 fiscal, we wish to take the figure to 1.2 million units in the Asia-Oceania region. India, by then, will contribute for about 25 per cent of the total sales in the region," Sen said.
Riding on the success of the Amaze sedan launched in April this year, HCIL registered an overall sales growth of 63% in the April-October period this fiscal with 70,831 units as against 43,525 units during the corresponding period last year.
Honda Motor Co Managing Officer, Representative of Development, Purchasing and Production, Asia & Oceania, Yoshiyuki Matsumoto termed the 12 lakh unit sales target in Asia-Oceania as 'challenging', adding that the region holds a very important position for Honda's global business.
"With its larger population, steady GDP growth and strong spending power, the demand for passenger vehicles in Asia has grown tremendously in the past decade... That's a challenging target that we will try our very best to pursue," he added.
The company's Asia-Oceania region comprises various countries including India, Malaysia, Thailand and Australia, but excludes major markets like China and Japan.
In India, despite a slowdown in the automobile industry, HCIL is in the middle of investing Rs 2,500 crore. As part of its investment plans, the company is coming up with a new car assembly line, a diesel engine plant and a forging plant at its manufacturing facility at Tapukara in Rajasthan.
Last fiscal, the Honda Motor Co had sold 30 lakh cars globally. It is looking to double the sales figure by March 2017.
