Honda has announced to change the corporate name of its wholly-owned Indian car subsidiary to ‘Honda Cars India Limited’.
This comes exactly a month after the Japanese automaker bought out the stake (3.16 per cent) of Indian joint venture partner, Usha International, after a 16-year-long partnership.
“The name change will be with immediate effect as per the fresh Certificate of Incorporation issued by the Registrar of Companies, NCT of Delhi and Haryana,” a company statement said. Previously, the company was known as Honda Siel Cars India.
Honda’s restructuring of the Indian car business comes on the back of a lacklustre sales performance because of non-availability of diesel engines and a limited mass segment models. In 2011-12, sales were down 8.47 per cent to 54,427 units.
Honda Cars India was established in December 1995 with a manufacturing facility at Greater Noida that today has an output of 1.2 lakh cars a year. A second facility has also been set up at Tapukara, Rajasthan, but is not in use on lack of demand.
The company locally makes the Brio, Jazz, City, Civic and Accord models, while the CR-V is imported from Japan as a completely built unit.