Honda to launch new bike in India

On the sidelines of launching the new facelifted version of Honda Activa Deluxe scooter in Delhi, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) has said that they are planning to launch new bike in India in 100cc segment that will be priced at around Rs. 40,000. Honda plans to launch new bike in the next fiscal year. Honda is also planning to phase out its 150cc geared scooter Honda Eterno, as the Honda plans to focus on the gearless segment. However, Honda refused to disclose any details about the new bike models. Honda expects to post sales of around 10.6 lakh vehicles, including scooters and motorcycles, for 2008-09, that is around 17% more than the previous fiscal. For the next fiscal year, 2009-10, Honda has set the sales target of around 12.5 lakh units in the Indian market, of which 7.4 lakh will be scooters and 5.1 lakh will be motorcycles. Currently, Honda has 332 dealerships across the country, HMSI would increase it to around 370 by this year-end and more than 400 by the fiscal calendar year.



Talking about the upcoming launches, Shinji Aoyama, HMSI president and CEO said Honda would launch new bike in India in 100cc bike segment targeting the mass market in next fiscal year, he also added that, Honda would launch various variants of the existing models as well as new models too prior to that. He, however, declined to disclose any details about the future launches. He concluded by saying that the 100cc bike segment is a mass market segment that offered the realistic budgets of most people in India.

Honda said that they were selling around 40,000 units of Honda Eterno per annum that is just not good enough numbers. India's largest scooter manufacturer planning to completely exit from the geared scooter segment and will phase out the Honda Eterno soon. HMSI is eyeing incremental sales of 75,000 units from the facelifted Honda Activa Deluxe to close 2009-10 at 5.5 lakh units.