Honda aims 10-15% growth this fiscal

Honda Seil Cars Ltd (HSCI) today said it is aiming for a 10-15% growth in volume, mainly on the back of its new compact car Brio.

"We have Brio this year and the model should give us volume. We are aiming for a volume growth of 10-15% during the current fiscal," HSCI Director (Sales) Seki Inaba said here today.

The company has registered a decline of 18% in sales during September over same period last year. In 2010-11, the company sold 60,000 cars.

HSCI had reduced prices of certain models like Jazz to help boost sales volume.

Auto sector body, SIAM had revised the industry growth projection to 2-4% for the current fiscal, against healthy double digit projection earlier.

Inaba did not give any estimates for Brio for the FY12, but said the company sold 500 Brio in September and has received 5,000 bookings so far.

Honda does not have any immediate plans to introduce Brio in diesel version. Brio is prices between Rs 4 lakh to Rs 5.1 lakh (ex-showroom Kolkata).

Inaba said the company has able to manage costs with higher localisation.

Further, he said, "We are currently producing engine and engine components at the Rajasthan plant and we may expand complete car production once we reach the optimum capacity at the UP plant," Inaba said.

The UP plant has a capacity of 100,000 units.