Honda aims to sell 2.4 lakh units in FY16

Japanese car maker Honda is looking at a 26 percent rise in sales at 2.4 lakh units in India in the current fiscal, helped by improved market conditions. "We have sold about 1.9 lakh units in 2014-15. We hope we may achieve around 2.4 lakh units if market conditions remains stable," Honda Cars India AVP Marketing Anita Sharma said here today at the launch of the new Jazz model.

The car maker had grown by 41 percent last year. Honda India has lined up Rs 380 crore to ramp up its manufacturing capacity from 2.4 lakh to 3 lakh units, company director and senior vice president - marketing & sales, Hiroyuki Shimizu said. "We are investing Rs 380 crore to step up our plant's capacity in Rajasthan," he said. The company has two existing plants in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan and is also acquiring land in Gujarat. Asked company about the third manufacturing plant in Gujarat, Sharma said, "We are not saying anything about the new plant at this moment unless things are finalised." "We are acquiring land for the last two years and it is still in the process of completion," she said. Speaking about new launches, Shimizu said the company has no plans for more new launches this year and was seriously considering compact SUV segment.

"We are in an advanced stage of a study on the compact SUV space and based on the study's outcome will take a call. The compact SUV is a growing market," Sharma said. Speaking about export market, Sharma said, "Our export target out of India is 10,000 units this year and bulk of it will go to South Africa. There will be healhty growth in the export of components to Rs 1,100 crore in FY16 from Rs 700 crore earlier."