Honda Motor Co wants India to double its contribution in global motorcycle revenue by 2020, with the automaker now seeking to explore developing markets for low cost vehicles.
Keita Muramatsu, president of Honda Motorycle & Scooter, announced on Tuesday a target of 30 percent in global sales, a 13 percent step-up in revenue that India is solely expected to deliver in eight years' time. The announcement was made at Honda's launch of its new Dream Yuga motorcycle in New Delhi, Reuters reported.
Around 300,000 Dream Yugas are expected to be sold by March 2013. The bike is reportedly the cheapest worldwide with the base price for the 110cc motorcycle starting at 44,642 rupees in India.
"Our long-term target is to be the number one in India by 2020," Honda India marketing head Yadvinder Singh Guleria was quoted saying to the news service.
Honda is currently facing competition from a suit of rivals including Bajaj Auto, Suzuki Motor and Hero MotoCorp, with whom the Japanese company had shared a 26-year partnership. Prior to the termination of the joint venture, the two automakers were not allowed to compete against each other, the news service said.
Soon after the venture break-up, Honda announced direct competition with Hero, and declared an investment of 20 billion rupees in its two-wheeler industry. Honda is increasingly gaining traction with sales, with around 50 percent more the number of motorbikes sold in March compared to the same month in 2011. Production volumes from then till March 2012 soared 14 percent, the report said.
The company, as of now, is seeking to ramp up production in India to a target of four million two-wheelers at the third plant that Honda is in the midst of constructing and is expected to function early 2013, the report said. The automaker has a 48 percent market share and has retained its position till date as the "largest-selling scooter brand in India, the Hindustan Times said.
"We want to be the number one motorcycle manufacturing company in India, there is no doubt about it," Muramatsu said earlier this year, according to the report.
