Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) launched Navi, a new kind of two-wheeler that uses the best attributes of a motorcycle and a scooter, at Auto Expo 2016. It was commercially rolled out in April and has managed to cross 50,000 units sale within six months.
Though there were doubts on the reception of the new idea, Navi has received overwhelming response in the country. It has been cloaking well beyond the expected 2,000 units per month sales. Buoyed by response, HMSI recently confirmed its plan to double Navi's production from the current 50,000 units per annum to nearly one lakh.
The Japanese motorcycle manufacturer has also said that it has over 28 million customers in 15 years of operations in India. The spike in sales came from Navi, India's best selling scooter range Activa and motorcycles such as Livo, CB Shine SP and CB Hornet 160R.
Priced at Rs 39,648 (ex-showroom Delhi), Navi is the first product to be conceived, designed, developed and validated in India by Honda's R&D. HMSI started exports of Navi to Nepal in October and plans to send vehicles to other SAARC nations. Proposed increase in production is also eyes export market.
Offered in three variants — Street, Adventure and Off-road — Navi comes in five colour options — red, green, white, orange and black. Navi is powered by a 109cc four-stroke SI engine that also does duty in Activa. The mill churns out 7.83bhp of power at 7,000rpm and 8.96Nm of peak torque at 5,500Nm.
"With Navi, Honda has been successful in creating a new segment in the Indian two wheeler industry. The 50,000 units landmark in a matter of just six months is a testimony to its acceptance by the young trendsetting Indian commuters," said Yadvinder Singh Guleria, Senior Vice President - Sales & Marketing at HMSI.
"We firmly believe customer experience and customer loyalty is priceless and their appreciation is an inspiration for all of us at Honda to continue to delight our customers in future too," he added.
