Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) on Wednesday announced its ‘Retain. Expand. Create’ strategy to make the company ‘future ready’ to grasp the opportunity to sell 64 lakh two-wheelers by 2016-17.

The company said it will achieve capacity of 64 lakh units by end of the next fiscal and will sell a similar number of two-wheelers.

HMSI sold 44.5 lakh units in the last financial year and is eyeing sale of 47 lakh units this year.

The company said it will invest ₹1,775 crore this financial year to expand its production capacity and launch new models in India.

“In 2015-16, India will be the second largest contributor to Honda’s global sales, accounting for 25 per cent. Currently, Indonesia is number one, but considering the way the Indian two-wheeler market is expected to grow, we may be able to become number one,” Keita Muramatsu, President and Chief Executive Officer, HMSI, told reporters here.

In India, the company that has three plants — Manesar (Haryana), Tapukara (Rajasthan) and Narsapura in Karnataka – that are running at full capacity.

Yet, it is facing capacity constraints because of higher demand, he said.

Muramatsu said the company was waiting for the fourth plant in Gujarat to come up so that the demand-supply ratio improves.

“We will be adding 18 lakh units at Gujarat, which is expected to come during this fiscal and another third line is being added at the Karnataka plant,” he added.

The company also plans to add 800 new outlets to take its total to 4,600 showrooms by the end of this year and will be targeting the new dealers in tier II and III towns.

Sports bike

Also, HMSI will be assembling the sports bike CBR 650F, which will be its flagship brand, at the Manesar plant and will initially roll out two units a day.

The CBR 650F will be sold through select shop-in-shops at 20 select towns, Muramatsu said, adding that out of the 20 outlets planned, 10 will be set up in the first half of this fiscal and the remaining by next year-end.

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