Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co has big plans for India as it launches two new models, Mobilio, a mid-sized multi-purpose vehicle, and Jazz, a bigger hatchback, during the year.

The launch of Mobilio is slated for the next month and Jazz later in the year. The prices will be decided after the Union Budget.

Riding on the success of the Amaze sedan and the fourth generation of Honda City, the company expects to double overall volumes within two years, which might necessitate Honda to further expand Indian manufacturing capacity.

The company has two manufacturing units at Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh, and in Rajasthan, each with a capacity of 1.2 lakh. However, with the plan to achieve volumes of about 3,00,000 by 2016-17, up from 1,34,399 cars in 2013-14, the company will have to expand its capacity.

High growth Interacting with newspersons, Jnaneswar Sen, Senior Vice-President, Honda Cars India Ltd, said: “The company has registered a big growth of 83 per cent last year riding on new models to close at 1,34,399 cars. We expect this number to go up further during the year as we launch more models. Honda expects to see a high double-digit growth and eyeing a bigger market share.”

The company has thus far invested ₹6,130 crore in Indian manufacturing capability, with the second plant commissioned early this year. Given the expectation of sales volumes of 3 lakh, Honda will have to increase the capacity from 2.4 lakh. This is likely to be at the Rajasthan unit.

“The launch of Honda Amaze and new City has boosted volumes significantly. We are now averaging about 13,000 cars a month. This will go up as we launch two other models,” he said.

The company registered exports of ₹350 crore by supplying spares and assemblies to other markets and exported 5,000 cars. This year, it is looking at doubling the spares volume exports to over ₹600 crore and cars to over 9,000 units, he said.

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