[karavadi143]

Looking at the current situation of Covid and its impact on the sale of vehicles, this thread seems apt.

However, a friend of mine, who works for Nissan confirmed that they have plans of expanding and introducing newer models next year.

Also, Renault is doing good numbers with Kwid, Kiger and also Triber. It does not seem likely they will be looking to exit the Indian market.

That said, Honda does not have a great pipeline of fresh offerings, except for the anticipated compact SUV. Their current offering of City and Amaze will not help them in the long run as the market moved away from sedans. I feel they might think about exit in a couple years of things don’t really change for them.

[gauravanekar]

Sequence of exit:
1. Isuzu
2. Honda
3. Stellantis

Companies which will survive until EV revolution truly materialises
Renault-Nissan-Datsun
VW-Škoda

Post EV survivors in India:
Suzuki-Toyota
Tata
Mahindra
MG
Hyundai-Kia

Personal opinion

[Deepak7745]

I would like to add Jeep to the list (though i wish they prove me wrong). Among the 3 brands mentioned I feel its the Honda which has all the right reason currently to exit India. Once an aspiration brand has lost ground and focus to the new age Korean competition
Renault is hear to stay as they have captured entry and budget segments comparatively well which gets the numbers. If they had upgraded the Duster and kept it in-line with the market demand they sure would have been in an even better position now.
Did anyone say Citroen

[mytbhp_turbo]

This is a "SAD" thread, I know it's still a valid question but my car lover mind forces me to think of an era with lots of car companies around offering zillion combinations of features, each providing different handing/driving experiences.

Having said that, coming back to the real world, I am worried about Nissan if their record annual global loss will eventually lead to management thinking they should keep operations concentrated in more strategic locations.

[SaiSW]

Originally Posted by Livnletcarsliv

In that case, Ford was also selling in good numbers - Figo, Freestyle, Aspire, Ecosport, Endeavour - and Ecosport was doing great.
Similar was the story with GM/Fiat where Beat-Optra-Cruze/Punto-Linea was doing good numbers even if not top sellers.

I don't think figo, aspire, freestyle were all doing great. If I remember correctly, their sales numbers were pretty sad actually. Even some cars that cost three or four times as much sold more per month. GM fiat I am not sure maybe they were doing respectable numbers but not the figo trio.

[CliffHanger]

Current Hot Favourites -

Honda - What a deep grave they have dug themselves into. An iconic engineering company on the verge of going extinct in India.

Nissan - A nobody's brand, doesn't have anything to survive. Like the Opel of yesteryears.

Future Hot Favourite -

Citroën - Looks like the French thought they will sell a few cars while on their yearly trip to Pondicherry. It will take at least a decade for people to just take the name of the brand seriously, unless they have deep pockets like Jio and give everything for free, for people to take notice.

What a period for enthusiasts, brands like Maruti, Hyundai and Kia kill the driving spirit within us, and they will be the only manufacturers left to selling cars, while brands like Tata will continue to circle in mediocrity with a brief spike every now and then.

I'm happy that I could relish the Fiats, the Mitsubishis and the Fords. The last Samurais!!

[fhdowntheline]

I think its a question of availability of platforms and the desire to innovate as most have put it earlier.
To that extent, Honda has only 2 platforms, and there isnt much to innovate. The one innovation that could have saved them (1.5 iVTEC in the WRV) has never been explored. That one single move alone would have put the WRV in serious contention with the other sub 4m crossovers.
Between them, Renault/Nissan seem to have enough brewing in their product lines to be able to churn out interesting stuff.
Even VW/Skoda can do better only if they get off their "German brand" high horse. A lot of potential customers somehow don't get the feel of their cars being value for money, although their recent products have tried to work on this perception.

[sedanlover2021]

Seeing Honda as the top choice. Makes me shiver to the spine when I think of my garage. Have the new Honda City and a facelifted Ford Ecosport. Ford has ran away already, god knows what will happen if Honda does as well! Are we indians only supposed to buy Maruti and Hyundai? Reminds me of communist Russia

[nTorq]

Does anyone have the financial figures of Honda Cars India? It would be interesting to know whether they’re actually running under losses, and if yes, for how long. A car manufacturer exiting a country is not because of low numbers only. It is dependent on multiple factors including their planned vs. actual plant utilisation, the profits they’re making in the market, and of course their after sales revenue. To me, when people say Honda will leave India soon, it sounds more like a wish, because we’re all pissed that they haven’t come out with a Creta competitor yet.

Ford exited India after repeatedly making losses for many years. If Honda Cars India is in a similar situation financially, then probably the majority on this thread is true. Else, it is just our anger as consumers, that is being vented like this.

PS: I bought the new City after a lot of consideration about this fact, and yes, it still remains a risk. But my mind told me that this risk was probably better than risking your family in a Creta/Seltos.

[Venkatesh]

Originally Posted by nTorq

Does anyone have the financial figures of Honda Cars India? It would be interesting to know whether they’re actually running under losses, and if yes, for how long.

Honda cars India registered a net loss of Rs 1,588 crore for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021. In the previous fiscal 2020, the manufacturer had posted a net loss of Rs 1,680 crore.

Revenue in fiscal 2021 fell by over 11% to Rs 9,624 crore.

In the past five years, the company has posted a loss in three - besides FY20 and FY21, it posted a Rs 2,272 crore loss in FY17.

In the last five years, its volume has shrunk over 15%. Its market share dropped to 3% in FY21 from a peak of 7% in FY16.

Sorce

[deetjohn]

Coming from the world of F1, I know that it doesn't take much for Honda HQ to call it quits.

And the irony is that they have always done that from a position of strength or a big turn around.

In 2009, they quit and gave a free championship to Brawn and that team formed the bed Rock of the all conquering Mercedes team in the hybrid era! And in 2021, Honda has almost sorted out the amazingly complex Power Unit to only gift all that away to Red Bull next year.

So, quitting comes easy for Honda. But in the Indian context, that is not from a position of strength though. The cars are suffering from quality issues - severe rusting, very poor quality of rubber components etc. But Honda being Honda, the owners think it's an issue with their own cars and not a larger problem with the brand.

And their current product line looks extremely weak and old too. So, maybe they will stick around to sort all that out and then quit.

[One]

Originally Posted by sedanlover2021

Makes me shiver to the spine when I think of my garage. Have the new Honda City and a facelifted Ford Ecosport.

When you purchase your next car, just let us know which car brand it is

[H0RSEPOWER]

With a huge loss of >1500 crore INR in last twi financial years, I think it would be Honda(not considering Isuzu, as it is not deemed to be considered as a mass market player).
There might be other manufacturers who are having lower sales numbers, but still they are having a better working plan to improve the sales by launching good new models with own unique characteristics (e.g. Renault launched Triber with a sub 5 lakhs price along with 3 row seating done in a sub 4 metres car, Nissan launched Magnite with a turbo CVT below 1 million INR). But what Honda is doing? Couple of years back, they launched CRV with 118 BHP diesel with a price tag of 30+ lakhs! When in the same country other homegrown manufacturers like Mahindra are giving similar power figures in a car having sub 1 million price; they even launched car with 200 BHP power with ADAS technology & 5* GNCAP rating along with a starting price of 12.5 lakhs! What are the Honda guys thinking about Indian market? Are they thinking it’s still a country full of snake charmers & ambassadors? (with no offence to the related people of any of the aforementioned two, I just wanted to give an idea)
They have negligible presence in SUV area, which is now the hot selling section. WR-V would be the last option in most of the people’s mind when they are shopping in that segment. They have a superb 1.5 litre petrol engine, but did not plonk that into the WR-V! I guess their final slayer would come in the guise of Slavia!

[sunilsreenivasg]

I doubt if any non-American company exits in that way. Personally, I do not want any company to leave us . We need a healthy competition and auto companies should see the buying potential of customers. If product is not good, we are bound to discard it.

[Ajay_Sensei]

It feels sad to read such threads, I hope none exit. It is surprising to see global heavyweights, such as Honda and Ford, struggling in the Indian market, especially when they have large global line-ups of fantastic cars.
Is this indicative of the Indian market being slow in climbing up the "value chain" of globally available products? Certainly, growth slowed down over the last few years. It would be good to see Ford and GM back in India at some point in the future.