Honda to expand dealership network in 3 years

GREATER NOIDA: Preparing for its planned foray into the compact car segment in India, Japanese auto major Honda said on Monday it will be expanding dealership network across 90 cities in the country in the next three years.
    
The company will also expand its production capacity to 1,60,000 units by the end of next year.
    
"In preparation for Honda's planned foray into the compact car segment, we are expanding our dealership network to 160 in 90 cities in the next three years," Honda Siel Cars India President and CEO M Takedagawa said at the inauguration
of its new unit here.
    
The company currently has a network of 80 dealers in 51 cities and will be taking up the number to 100 in 2008-09.
    
HSCI's facility here will have a capacity of 1,00,000 units, up form the current 50,000 units. It has invested Rs 400 crore in the capacity expansion. With this investment, HSCI has invested a total of Rs 1,620 crore since it started operations in India in 1997.
    
The company, which is currently constructing a second manufacturing facility in Rajasthan, expects to start production there with an initial capacity of 60,000 units. which is not good for our players," he said.