[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by RSR

First seven months' sales numbers for Mobilio (including month of launch/first dealer dispatches):

3365 --- 5530 --- 5529 --- 2985 --- 3588 --- 2098 --- 2940

First seven months' sales numbers for BR-V (including month of launch/first dealer dispatches):

567 --- 2344 --- 3064 --- 3333 --- 2229 --- 2193 --- 1070

Clearly, despite the BR-V being an all-round leap over the Mobilio (in terms of styling, interiors, GC etc.), it has not fared as well as the Mobilio in the initial months of release.

Very difficult to explain. When Mobilio was launched, it was the only alternative to Ertiga as a family mover. Perhaps people flocked to Mobilio in the initial months to own a small family MPV from Honda's stable. Once this set of people bought the Mobilio, I guess the demand crashed - because of slightly higher price than Ertiga and low car-like seating.

Poor reception of BRV is equivalent to poor reception of Tata Safari Storme among customers. Just like how prospective Storme customers are opting for New Scorpio or XUV500, prospective BRV customers (large families) are opting for Ertiga or Innova instead. There is something putting off customers, and it is not necessarily price or lack of features.

[damager21]

Honda seems to be struggling again and its because of their own doing. November 2016 sales was only 8029 units.
*Brio - 202
*Jazz - 2655
*Amaze - 1971
*City - 2658
*Mobilio - 101
*BRV - 419
*CRV - 21
*Accord Hybrid - 2

New Brio is not attracting too many bookings, same story for Accord, BRV and Mobilio. Honda needs to seriously look at their feature list.

Both Mobilio and BRV are 2 big missed opportunities for them. They need to load them with better features to create more demand. A major discount looks inevitable. With demonetisation, consumers will be more discerning with their spends and that would definitely lead to low footfalls.

Moreover with 2017 approaching quickly, unsold stock of 2016 will be offered at a high discount.

[CARDEEP]

In my opinion, the Brio platform is laggard in specific. Whatever has been offered has failed the targets IMO.

Overall need to rethink their strategy not just for India, but their worldwide operations. They are flayed everywhere for quality issues & barring good engines, they do not have anything going in their favour, whether it is design, interior quality or materials affecting longevity of their vehicles. The diesel is not as refined or green as what the Koreans are offering, cause the template (VW 1.6L diesel) itself was not the best.

To cut short they are in quandary & need to focus on their strengths - good engines & reliability to get the Mojo back. They need the S2000 more than Civic Sports (which is not going to break bank in UK/ Europe).

They need to win over Indian market with realistic premium, than sky high prices on basis of past accolades & lack of competition in past.

People still have lost admiration for Honda, but they cannot have the same after few more years.

[moshel]

In my opinion, Honda needs to get the pricing right.

For eg. In terms of price bracket, Brio is a competitor of Swift, Grand i10 and the like. However, the perceived value of Brio is a segment lower than Swift/Grand i10. Which I think is due to the odd exterior design. Maybe if the boot was a bit curvy, people would've liked the design.

Most people I speak to are of the opinion that Brio just isn't worth the 5L+ price it is asking. You get much more in a Swift and Grand i10 in the same price bracket. Secondly, for a little more price than the Brio, you get the Amaze.

Back in December 2014 when I was looking for a car, Brio's base model was priced at 4.12 lakhs ex-showroom; OTR was 4.80lakhs. Today (December 2016) the base model is priced at 4.81 lakhs ex-showroom!

The only thing going for Honda is it's iVtec engine. It is for the engine that people buy Honda cars like the Brio and Amaze. But then again someone who's looking to sell the car after 3-5 years or after 50k kms, wouldn't care so much for reliability. Because most cars out there do not have any major engine related faults till atleast 50k kms.

[volkman10]

Honda looking to invest INR 2500 Cr. for a 3rd Plant, in Gujarat. Chalks out a long term investment ( 5 - 7 yr)



Link.

[west]

Is this new plant meant for civic? Because I see no motivating products in their pipe line for couple of years.Comon honda your sales vs plans are not inline.

[CarguyNish]

Honda Cars India to miss FY2017 Sales Target

India has been fourth largest car market for Honda Motor globally, followed by USA, Japan and China.

Rightly said by Experts

Industry experts believe that Honda has not been able to launch good products at the right price in the segments which are growing. "Honda has not been able to hit the right chord in Indian car market except one or two products. The strategy of launching utility vehicles with an aim to bite the pie from the growing segment has certainly failed."

Link

[volkman10]

With a negative growth reported for the last 15 months, Honda to now focus and be aggressive in the premium segment in India .

WR-V is the next launch keen to launch the Civic but not firm yet.

Honda Civic will make a comeback in India as the Japanese car maker looks for a more aggressive play in the premium-end, while staying away from mass-market segment categories that are dominated by Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai

We now have a strategy to maintain our traditional positioning, which is a bit more premium though not luxury. So, we would like to target customers a bit different from Maruti or Hyundai. We would like to do that in terms of products, service, and customer experience

Link

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by volkman10

With a negative growth reported for the last 15 months, Honda to now focus and be aggressive in the premium segment in India .

I doubt this will pay off. With consistent drop in quality in the outgoing City and the reputation for offering a rather conservative feature list across their products, Honda is no where close to their earlier "premium" image.

They should launch superior products, in terms of quality and features, and focus on winning customers, than pure profits.

[Nonstop-driver]

Honda India chief in an exclusive interview on Honda's strategy in India

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/bus...f_8530061.html

[RavenAvi]

Going forward, Honda Cars India is looking seriously into launching it's premium compact SUV, the HR-V, and the latest version of it's well-known D-segment sedan, the Civic, in India soon.

Also, to keep it's "premium" image intact, expect no more Base/E MT variants from any of the future Honda products in India.

If the launches of the facelifted 2017 City and the all-new WR-V are any indication, all future Honda cars will have a well-loaded starting variant (either S or SV) and a smaller range of variants across all models.

Honda Cars India, President & CEO, Yoichiro Ueno said, "We are getting a lot of request from customers and dealers for HR-V and Civic. We are evaluating both the cars to launch in India." With these launches on the card, Honda is gunning to win back its premium carmaker image.

Going further, HCIL plans to limit the number of variants and keep them towards the premium side which is visible with the latest offering of the WR-V.

Not just this, the carmaker's recent Honda City facelift has received bookings of over 14,000 units out which 40% are for the top-end ZX variant.

It is clear the carmaker is keen to now focus on the quality not just in products but also in offering product experience at the dealership. Yoichiro Ueno added, "We are developing a new customised intelligence system. Currently, customers before visiting dealers learn a lot from the Internet and magazines; so these days’ customers are knowledgeable. So, we are focusing on quality of sales. Not only for Honda but overall also we are reducing attrition among sales consultants."

When launched HR-V will compete with the likes of the Tata Hexa, Toyota Innova and Mahindra XUV 500. Also, in terms of positioning it will sit below CR-V and above BR-V.

ET Auto

[volkman10]

Honda to develop a brand new global car platform with India in focus. The new platform to take 3- 4 years of development time.

India will play a key role in development of the new platform, along with teams in Thailand, Brazil, and headquarters Japan.

- A New Premium Compact Car
- New Sedan
- SUV
- To focus on its premium image - City and Jazz paving the way

Other than the above, HR-V ( segment below the CR-V)and the new Civic Sedan are being evaluated for the Indian market.

Link

[Chetan_Rao]

What exactly is the need for a separate platform?

If they plan to exit the budget segment (Brio platform) and go premium like they've been saying recently, the Jazz/Fit platform already covers the premium hatch/compact sedan segments. Anything above will anyhow be existing international products (Civic, HR-V, CR-V etc.).

Time will tell, but this just sounds like an excuse to tweak the budget car platform and move it a segment higher. Brio replacement for ~8L anyone?

[aargee]

What is the problem with the word premium & auto manufacturers? First it was Nexa to use the tagline Premium experience, now Honda, Premium cars/offering/image

With fancy brochure, uniforms, using ipads, fancy confusing abbreviated words, would that all contribute to the word premium or what?

[SmartCat]

Just going back to 'premium' products (like Civic & HRV) will do nothing, if it is just imports or just CKD assembly. High taxes means it will not be VFM products - just look at Accord & CRV numbers.

What Honda needs to do is increase local sourcing and reduce import content over time, when they introduce HRV and Civic. So this doesn't mean bringing in these products just because of customers are asking for it via dealership feedback. Honda has to "invest" both time (looking for local suppliers) and money (engine manufacturing plant for high powered petrol & diesel engines) into these products.