Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI), the wholly-owned arm of Japan’s Honda Motor Company Ltd, will launch a 100cc motorcycle by 2010.
NEW DELHI: Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI), the wholly-owned arm of Japan’s Honda Motor Company Ltd, will launch a 100cc motorcycle by 2010.
The company is also planning to invest Rs 300 crore for increasing the capacity of its Manesar plant to 1 million units by 2008-09 and further raise its to its optimum capacity of 1.2 million by 2010-11.
NK Rattan, head of sales and marketing, HMSI, said, “We plan to launch our 100cc product by 2010. The segment is sizable and we (Hero Honda and HMSI) can cater to different segments of the 100 cc segment and easily avoid eating into each-other’s markets. It would be completely a new bike.”
Hero Honda, in which Honda Motors holds a 26% stake, is the largest player in the 100cc motorcycle market. With HMSI entering the 100 cc space, the two may end up scrambling for a greater pie in the segment, which has been slipping lately.
With a strong presence in the gearless scooter segment, HMSI is one of the few two-wheeler firms to have registered a growth in sales this fiscal. Of the total sales of 9,00,000 two-wheelers expected this fiscal, 6,00,000 would be scooters. HMSI has a 54% market share in the segment, which forms 13% of the overall two-wheeler market, up from 8% a few years back.
The company launched its fourth scooter product in the segment — Aviator at the Auto Expo on Wednesday.
“We are confident of selling one lakh Aviators this year,” chief executive officer, S Aoyama said. The company also showcased its concept motorcycle CBF, which is being developed specially for the Indian market. Rattan said the company plans to introduce some of the “big bikes” from the Honda stable by 2009.
“There are some issues we need to sort out before we launch, like safety and post-sale service infrastructure,” he said. Owning to smaller numbers, the company is likely to import these bikes rather than manufacture them here.
g_rabin@dnaindia.net
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