Honda Cars India aims to increase its share in Honda’s global car sales volume from the current 3 percent to 5 percent in the next two years.
Jnaneswar Sen, senior VP (marketing and sales), Honda Cars India, said the Indian subsidiary of the Japanese auto major sold 1,34,000 cars in 2013-14, which comprises 3 percent of the company’s global sales that stood at 4.4 million cars. “Globally Honda has set a target to sell 6.6 million cars by 2016-17, of which 3,00,000 cars or 5 percent will come from India,” Sen said.
The Indian market for Honda cars is growing year-on-year. The Indian subsidiary recorded 83 percent growth in 2013-14, which is more than double the 37 percent growth in 2012-13. “Now we are targeting Tier III cities in India by expanding our dealership network in all parts of the country,” he added.
The company plans to add another 60 dealerships across the country in the current fiscal, of which 47 will be in Tier III cities. By the end of 2014-15, he said the company’s sales network will be expanded to 230 dealerships from the current 170 dealerships. In Karnataka alone, Honda will set up five new dealerships, out of 14 dealerships planned for South India. One more dealership will come up in Bangalore while other targeted Tier II and Tier III cities for new dealerships are Belgaum, Hospet, Shimoga and Udupi in Karnataka. Bangalore is the third biggest market for Honda after Delhi and Mumbai and 7 percent of its Indian sales comes from Karnataka. South India accounted for 27 percent share in the total Indian sales during the period.
Giving an optimistic outlook for the current year, Sen said, “We will have good figures as we had in the last fiscal. We will definitely have growth in double digits.”