[manishkapadia]

The Civics Indeed Fantastic . We have a 6.5 year old civic done 88,000 kms in family . Its still so good and has needed nothing done besides routine honda maintenance .

Its my uncles daily drive and he just refuses to let it go . He tested other cars but says he does not find any other car cheaper than 20 lacs as pleasing . MT with the 1.8 Litre engine is so good.

But then we are honda fans . Have a Civic , Jazz as well as City in the family. Having a history of using for longer term than most individuals , hondas fit the bill perfectly .

[Aditya]

Honda Cars India Ltd. has announced that its Tapukara facility will be inaugurated on February 24, 2014. The plant will roll out its first car with the commencement of the car manufacturing facility.

Link to Team-BHP News Article

[vvvinod]

And Finally Honda is back to business, they are the 3rd largest car brand after Maruti and Hyundai now with a total sales of 100495 units. Tapukara facility will definitely help them reduce the waiting period for all version significantly to capture more market share.

[carZest]

And this without the Mobilo and the new Jazz. IMHO 2014 is going to be Honda's year. Unless they mess up with pricing or if the i-DTEC proves to have some longevity issues/design flaws - neither of which should happen.

After the Mobilo and Jazz, if they should re-look the Civic and Brio then Hyundai is in trouble as the country's 2nd largest manufacturer!

[damager21]

Honda seems to have focused on a high level of localization and this strategy seems to have paid off. Higher local content has helped them price their new cars aggressively. Amaze is built with 90% local content and City with 92%.

This focus will surely help them keep the cost down even for their future launch of Mobilio and Jazz. With diesel engine as an option, both Mobilio and Jazz should see a huge demand.

While this seems to be a good news for Honda, pricing of these cars may post a challenge for Amaze as there is a threat of cannibalization.

With Mobilio expected to be launched around 7 lacs and Jazz around 5 lacs, it will be interesting to see if these cars eat into the sales of Amaze both for lower and upper variants.

I think even if this was to happen, Honda wont mind much as they have a monthly capacity of only 20,000 units. In this tough time for the auto industry if they manage to run with a 100% capacity utilization, they will be satisfied. Also, they have an option to export Amaze which would help them make more money than selling in India.

All in all a win-win for Honda with more great times ahead!

[RavenAvi]

Honda's Tapukara factory all set to be inaugurated on February 24. The first cars to roll out of the production line would be the Amaze diesel and later on, the Mobilio.

Spread on a land area of 450 acres, it will help Honda India to boost it's annual production numbers to 2,40,000 cars.

[sarathlal]

Honda inaugurated its second plant in India at Tapukara, Rajasthan.

At present, only the Amaze will be manufactured here in a single shift. The additional production capacity will help ease some load at the Greater Noida plant that runs a three shift production run for the Amaze.
Honda has stated, the Tapukara plant is a flexible facility and can be used to manufacture any of its other products.

Source: http://www.autocarindia.com/auto-new...an-373209.aspx

[volkman10]

Honda to focus on Tier 3 cities.

Honda to come up with 67 new dealerships in Tier 3 towns across India .

At present, Honda has a presence in 102 cities with 163 dealerships. Plans are afoot to increase this number to 230 dealerships in 150 cities by March 2015. Interestingly, all of the new dealerships will come up in tier 3 cities that currently account for 50 percent of Honda’s dealer network. There’s a strong case for such expansion too. Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities make up as much as 65 percent of sales of the Amaze, while Honda expects 58 percent of City sales to come from these cities.

Source:ACI

[parrys]

Honda Cars India Limited (HCIL) has started the production of cars from its Tapukara Plant in Rajasthan. The Honda Amaze is the first car to roll out from this new facility. The event was attended by Ms. Vasundhara Raje, Honourable Chief Minister, Government of Rajasthan and Mr. Yasuhisa Kawamura, Minister & Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Japan in India along with other Senior officials from the Govt. of Rajasthan, Honda senior management and their business partners.

This HCIL plant is spread over an area of 450 acres and is an integrated manufacturing unit including all functions of Forging, Press Shop, Powertrain shop, Weld shop, Paint shop, Plastic Moulding, Engine assembly, Frame assembly and Engine Testing facility. With a cumulative investment of Rs. 3526 crores, Tapukara plant currently employs about more than 3200 associates.

The Tapukara plant is the 2nd plant of HCIL which started its phase 1 operations in September 2008 with Press Shop and Power Train Unit for engine components. With the start of production of cars in the 2nd plant, HCIL’s total installed production capacity has been increased to 240,000 units / annum in India (Additional 1,20,000 units / annum). During the current fiscal year 2013-14, HCIL crossed the 1 lakh unit sales for the first time in a financial year by selling 101,370 units in Apr '13 - Jan '14 period registering a growth of 78% over same period last year.

HCIL now has two manufacturing facilities; one at Greater Noida, U.P and the other at Tapukara, Rajasthan. Honda's current line-up includes the Brio, Amaze, City and CR-V. The company has a sales and distribution network of 162 facilities in 103 cities.

Link to news article.

[RavenAvi]

Motorbeam's Aariz Rizvi got a chance to visit Honda India's newly inaugurated car manufacturing unit at it's Tapukara factory in Rajasthan.

The new Honda facility is situated in Tapukara and interestingly it is the first car manufacturing plant in Rajasthan. The plant is spread over an area of 450 acres with an installed production capacity of 1.20 lakh units per annum. The cumulative investment done by the Japanese automaker is Rs. 3526 crores and the plant currently employs about more than 3200 associates. The Tapukara plant already started its first phase of operations in 2008 that included press shop and powertrain unit for engine components. The huge facility now involves almost all crucial functions of a manufacturing unit that helps in achieving optimum localisation level to churn out affordable products.

For the time being, the Tapukara plant is manufacturing the Honda Amaze that will be followed by the new Honda City and the rest of their lineup. With the commencement of production of cars in the second plant, Honda’s total production capacity has increased to 2.4 lakh units per annum, which can be ramped up in the future if necessary. Honda claims that the plant is focused on conservation of the environment and efficient use of energy and other natural resources.

Complete article - http://www.motorbeam.com/cars/honda-...ara-rajasthan/

[vasudeva]

Originally Posted by carZest

And this without the Mobilo and the new Jazz. IMHO 2014 is going to be Honda's year. !

Unless consumer confidence improves dramatically and economy grows at >6-7%, it is going to be pretty much nobody's year in the car industry. The excise duty cuts may not help much.

[iliketurtles]

Honda has achieved staggering sales figures for Feb 2014 if their official February 2014 sales release is to be believed.

They racked up total domestic sales of 14543 units, representing a growth rate of 123%. The catalyst behind this surge? No prizes for guessing, it's the New City with sales figures of a whopping 7213 units. The i-Dtec shorn new City is making some noise, and how!

Source: motorbash.com

[RavenAvi]

Indeed, it's true. It's safe to assume that the City and the Amaze are easily in the top 10 cars by sales volumes for February 2014.

Here is their official press release:

1st March, 2014: Honda Cars India Ltd. (HCIL), leading manufacturer of premium cars in India, recorded a monthly domestic sales of 14,543 units in February 2014 registering a growth of 123% owing to the success of the all new Honda City and strong sales momentum for Honda Amaze. The company sold 6510 units in the corresponding month last year.

Expressing delight on the company’s performance Mr. Jnaneswar Sen, Sr. Vice President – Marketing & Sales, Honda Cars India Ltd. said, “We are happy to see the huge demand for the all new Honda City which has gained the leadership position in its segment from the first month itself. The deliveries for the Petrol City have begun from February and with both our car manufacturing plants in operation, it will aid in quick delivery of cars and cater to the strong demand from our customers. The excise duty reduction announced during Interim budget last month has made all our cars even more attractively priced for our customers.”

With a cumulative investment of Rs 3526 crores, Tapukara plant currently employs about more than 3200 associates.

HCIL registered an overall growth of 83% in Apr’13 – Feb’14 with 115,913 units as against 63,439 units during the corresponding period last year. HCIL also exported a total volume of 252 units during February 2014.

Model wise sales break-up for February 2014:
Brio 1235
Amaze 6030
City 7213
CRV 65
Domestic Total 14543
Exports 252
Grand Total 14795

https://www.hondacarindia.com/mediaC...aspx?pr_id=302

[damager21]

Honda is definitely on a roll. 123% growth in tough market conditions, just goes to show that right product at the right time can do wonders.

[dozer]

Originally Posted by iliketurtles

Honda has achieved staggering sales figures for Feb 2014 if their official February 2014 sales release is to be believed.

They racked up total domestic sales of 14543 units, representing a growth rate of 123%. The catalyst behind this surge? No prizes for guessing, it's the New City with sales figures of a whopping 7213 units. The i-Dtec shorn new City is making some noise, and how!

Source: motorbash.com

I personally find it shocking that people go for the new City i-Dtec.
It's got the engine of the lower segment's Amaze and is nothing compared to its competitors in terms of engine specs. It's priced much higher than the petrol version for the lower segment engine! This is shockingly overpriced!
Why would people buy this car? I don't get it.

The petrol variant however is a massive improvement in terms of features. Yeah the diesel one's got it too, but the gap in prices for a smaller engine is a big minus IMO. I'm wrong though, it sells!