[Aditya]

Mod Note: Our Honda Jazz Review has been taken live at this link. Please continue the discussion over on the new thread. Thanks!

Japanese carmaker Honda, is expected to launch the new Jazz hatchback in India in July 2015. However, the company is facing a problem with production constraints due to the limited capacities.

Honda has two plants in India - one in Greater Noida and one in Tapukara, Rajasthan. Both these plants are running two shifts and operating at 100% capacity. This could force the company to put the production of one of its existing models on hold.

The model most likely to be taken off the production line is the Brio hatchback. The car has not been selling well and its sales in April fell to a mere 827 units.

While the Amaze and Mobilio, which are based on the same platform as the Brio, got a 1.5-litre diesel engine, the hatchback was left out and as a result fell behind rivals on the sales charts. There have been rumours in the past about the next-generation Brio getting a 1.2-litre, 3-cylinder diesel motor.

Source: Autocar Professional

[Rollingwheels26]

Meh.

Damn it Honda. You have a wonderful hatchback on your hands. Instead of giving up on it and giving it step motherly treatment why not tweak its dashboard deisgn , increase your marketing budget for it and see it fly off the shelves ?

I will never understand the "wisdom" of the nitwits running Honda India

[p'arth]

Brio needs an updated dash and a traditional hatch door and some tweak in pricing and variants. Without this it may not fly off the shelves.

OT - When is the Brio facelift coming?

[rr_zen]

Originally Posted by p'arth

Brio needs an updated dash and a traditional hatch door and some tweak in pricing and variants. Without this it may not fly off the shelves.

Its high time the Brio went through a facelift. I agree the dashboard needs a complete revamp to begin with along with of course the much needed rear windshield washer.

Originally Posted by p'arth

OT - When is the Brio facelift coming?

News of a facelift (Why is Honda Brio not selling in big numbers?) in the offing was reported almost a year ago in the forum but looks like it hasn't seen the light of the day as yet.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Rollingwheels26

see it fly off the shelves?

Guys, the Brio is done & dead. No facelift or new dashboard is ever going to help it 'fly off the shelves'.

The current generation will remain a flop. Seeing its poor sales, I'm surprised Honda is even keeping it in production (might change permanently with the Jazz??).

The product was good, but not perfect. It would never have enjoyed the success of competitors like the Swift / i10 / Grand i10. Would've done a little better if Honda had supported it from the start. But with the production capacity that Honda had at the time, it would rather make more expensive / profitable cars than the cheap Brio.

[kiku007]

What a pleasant situation for a company to be in! But how much capacity is going to be liberated by stalling the Brio? Somehow feels like random piece of news thrown in to fill in magazine pages.

[nug1]

I think, it makes good business sense to prioritise and ensure supply of new launch over a model doing not-so-well.

Not only is a long wait time for any new models a huge repellent for customers, but supplying the demand at hand in this highly competitive market is vital to capture market share also. The initial customer pull while Jazz is still a new car will give it a huge headway and help it stand in front of the mighty i20. Besides, I believe Jazz would have better margins for Honda over Brio.

[volkman10]

Originally Posted by kiku007

But how much capacity is going to be liberated by stalling the Brio? Somehow feels like random piece of news thrown in to fill in magazine pages.

When Brio's volumes have not crossed more than 1700 from Nov -14 to April -15, why would Honda nurture and continue the production of Brio?

Honda will rather go all out and accommodate Jazz where the profits will be higher and will I guess sensibly price and carve a slot in the premium Hatch market.

[venuvedam]

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[@KP]

Originally Posted by GTO

The product was good, but not perfect. It would never have enjoyed the success of competitors like the Swift / i10 / Grand i10. Would've done a little better if Honda had supported it from the start. But with the production capacity that Honda had at the time, it would rather make more expensive / profitable cars than the cheap Brio.

If that is the case, it makes me wonder why base future models based on this not so successful car? Barring Amaze, I don't see Mobilio and to-be-launched SUV based on Brio doing well with sales.

Perhaps time to pull the plug on Mobilio and get the Vezel or maybe atleast Jazz Shuttle !

But then I see the Honda seems determined in promoting Mobilio and has increased the slots for TVCs of Mobilio. They seem to be adamant with putting up with Mobilio.

[Vigkey]

This was expected IMO and makes a lot of sense. With consistent sales of below 2000 over a long period the car was not bringing in a lot of profit to Honda. It was supposed to be a mass market offering and Honda should have targeted 5k+ sales per month. No point pondering over what Honda could have done or should do to revive it. It was simply a small fun to drive car which was marginally over-priced and it's fate was sealed.

Honda is targeting Jazz as a mass market offering again and will not be happy with anything less than 6k per month. However, to achieve this, the pricing should be the key. Assuming Brio will be discontinued soon, Amaze will become its starting model and Jazz overlapping inn pricing could bother Honda. Things are starting to look more complicated and Jazz's pricing a big question-mark.

Originally Posted by @KP

If that is the case, it makes me wonder why base future models based on this not so successful car? Barring Amaze, I don't see Mobilio and to-be-launched SUV based on Brio doing well with sales.

Amaze being a success is the key here. I am sure they are selling over 5-6k Amaze's every month and that will even out the fluctuating factory dispatches we see for Amaze. This might be nothing compared to the Dzire, but Amaze is usually the second in the race and consistently beating the VFM Zest and Xcent. It is definitely bringing a decent volume and a lot of profits to Honda. Same goes with Mobilio. I don't think Honda expects more than 2.5k Mobilios sold each month. They are selling it at a hefty premium and this volume should be good enough for them to be happy. Please note, it sells around 50% of Ertiga and I am sure Honda will be OK with that - considering their capacity.

Honda will not compromise on City sales and with City occupying ~35-40% and Amaze ~25-30% of their capacity consistently, they cannot hope to sell much of other models - What do they do, price it up and sell less and get the huge profit per piece. I believe it is working well for Honda.

Brio based SUV is far away IMO. Definitely not until the expanded capacity Tapukara plant is functional in mid-2016. By then a lot could change.

Originally Posted by @KP

Perhaps time to pull the plug on Mobilio and get the Vezel or maybe atleast Jazz Shuttle !

But then I see the Honda seems determined in promoting Mobilio and has increased the slots for TVCs of Mobilio. They seem to be adamant with putting up with Mobilio.

As I said, Honda is selling 2500 Mobilios per month and are getting heavy cash from that and are not going to let it go so soon. Vezel and Jazz shuttle are unfortunately very far from India - I would love to see them here and pay for it too - but do you think Honda listens to us minority??

[Latheesh]

Brio is a HONDA that does not look like a HONDA

Whatever they do with the current Brio will not help them

[damager21]

I am not sure if this report is accurate for 3 reasons

1. As per car shipment data, Honda is currently not even close to 100% capacity utilization. They have a capacity of 20,000 units per month. Except for March, I think every other month they have shipped between 12k to 18k units with an average of 15k units per month



2. Brio is currently manufactured at Honda's Noida plant while Jazz will be manufactured at Tapukara. How would stalling production of Brio help scale up production of Jazz?

3. Sales of Amaze and Mobilio have stagnated and as per reports Honda has enough and more units of these lying in their stockyard.

There is No real need to stall production of Brio

[GTO]

Originally Posted by @KP

If that is the case, it makes me wonder why base future models based on this not so successful car? Barring Amaze, I don't see Mobilio and to-be-launched SUV based on Brio doing well with sales.

It's a cheap car & platform. Thus, higher-priced models on the same cheap platform = bigger profits.

Originally Posted by Vigkey

As I said, Honda is selling 2500 Mobilios per month and are getting heavy cash from that and are not going to let it go so soon.

At the current pricing, I don't think the Mobilio can manage 2,500 units in the longer term. Its already slipping, and will continue to do so. Honda became too greedy with the Mobilio's price & strategy.

Originally Posted by damager21

As per car shipment data, Honda is currently not even close to 100% capacity utilization. They have a capacity of 20,000 units per month.

Installed capacity doesn't mean it's 100% available. Among other things, you also need your vendors to increase supplies & capacities at their own end.

Brio is currently manufactured at Honda's Noida plant while Jazz will be manufactured at Tapukara. How would stalling production of Brio help scale up production of Jazz?

Great point, something all of us missed.

For all you know, Honda might just use 'capacity requirements' as a fake reason to bury the Brio.

[sumeethaldankar]

This might be Honda's strategy to slowy choke and kill the Brio. I think the Brio and the Jazz failed because they were small cars. All Honda's cars which were a run away hit in India have been sedans and suv's. The Honda buying public did not seem to have a liking for the non sedan/suv type cars from Honda.

Just a layman thinking opinion. I dont think even the Jazz might hit the high sales mark. I think Honda might kill the Brio production slowly citing production accomadation for the Jazz, ask dealers to refuse orders for the Brio stating delay in deliveries and make the customer look at the Jazz instead thus cinverting a potential Brio customer into Jazz customer.