Falling sales have forced Honda to pull the plug on the Civic sedan, which has sold just over 50,000 cars since its launch in 2006.
Honda Car India Senior Vice-President for Marketing and Sales Jnaneswar Sen told Business Line that sales of the car have been falling steadily over the years with other models such as the City eating into its sales.
Compact SUV
The last of the Civic models was sold in March this year. “We felt there was no point in investing in a segment that was declining over the last three years,” he said. Civic, which competes with Corolla and Elantra, is part of the lower D segment. This segment of passenger cars have an engine capacity of 1800 cc or more and are bigger three-box cars with a price tag of Rs 11-15 lakh. The segment sales dropped 29 per cent to 19,239 units in 2012-13 over the previous year and the Civic sold 70 per cent less, at 685 units, during the same period. Interestingly, in its first year of launch in 2005, Civic sold as much as the entire segment in 2012-13.
In another development, Honda has said it will launch a new generation Jazz next year while a new model of City and a multi-purpose vehicle are also expected to be launched soon. A compact SUV showcased at the Detroit Auto Show recently may also be launched in the Indian market.
Sen said the Rs 2,500-crore investment announced recently involves investment in setting up the diesel engine plant, a foundry and a 1.2 lakh unit car manufacturing plant. The diesel engine plant, with a capacity of 1.63 lakh units, has been set up at an investment of Rs 490 crore. The level of indigenisation in the diesel engine is about 80 per cent, expected to go up to 90 per cent.
Honda also plans to export engine components from this plant to European countries.
TWO PLATFORMS
The Honda official said the company currently has two platforms on which various car models are built. The Brio platform consists of the Brio, the Amaze and the yet to be launched seven-seater MPV, while the Jazz platform supports the Jazz, the City and (the yet to be launched) compact SUV.
He pointed out that the Brio had performed exceedingly well for the company last year, lifting total sales 35 per cent to 73,300 — Honda’s best performance since it began operations here. The car maker has about 3.9 per cent of the total passenger car market in the country, placing it in fifth position in the pecking order.