Mulling ways to meet small car demand in India: Honda

Japanese auto major Honda is 'seriously' considering possibilities of expanding its small car portfolio in India to meet the rising demand in the market, even as it works on enhancing vehicle development capability in its operations there. The company, which has made India one of its global components export hubs, also sees 'ample room' of growth for export of cars from the country with increased competitiveness of finished vehicles produced there. When asked about the company's plans for small cars in India, Honda President and Chief Executive Officer Takahiro Hachigo said: "At Honda, we place priority on trying to listen to the needs, request from the customers from different regions." "Therefore, if the region is showing strong demand for small cars we are always seriously considering possibilities." he added.He further said, "This applies not only to India, but all of Asia, listening in to the demands for small cars. We are thinking of what kind of strategy we need to put in place for this category..." Currently, Honda sells hatchback Brio in the compact cars segment and Jazz in premium hatchback category in India. Asked about India's role in development of future Honda products, Hachigo said "we are going to work on increasing the development capability in India".

Honda globally wants to enhance its six regional operation systems and would like to see each region work on their own development, procurement, production and sales in their respective regions, he said. "Therefore, we would like to enhance these functions in India also," Hachigo said. To a question regarding vision for Indian market and volume expectation by 2020, he said instead of trying to estimate the volume, Honda would rather focus on products.

"India is a big country with a large population and I believe that motorisation will grow even more significantly. Heading towards 2020, as I said, I believe the key will be how many products we can come up with, that the Indian customers will like," he said. Hachigo further added, "We believe that it is more important that what kind of products are going to be welcomed by Indian market. Therefore, we are seriously considering what types of products, and I think if we have such competent products in place that would determine the volume." Commenting on exports from India, he said, "Already India is a growing export hub for our components. We are exporting worldwide and also in small volume, we are already exporting cars from India to, for example, South Africa and other Asian nations."