Honda takes 4th spot in domestic car sales

Honda Cars India has jumped two positions up the sales charts in the beginning of 2014 with total domestic sales of 15,714 units in January. The Japanese carmaker is poised to stay in this position if the thunderous response to the new Honda City continues. Also, January 2014 sales were a three fold increase to the same month last year.

In the first month of its launch, which is not even a full month since the new City was launched on January 07, it has clocked 7,184 units. Coupled with the increased sales of the Amaze that stood at 7,398 units, Honda has had an excellent month at the showrooms. This is mainly due to diesel versions of the City and Amaze. 

Honda has overtaken Tata Motors (13,800 units) and Toyota (10,910 units) in January and it looks like it will retain its position in the months to come. Tata Motors doesn’t have any new car launch till the second half of this financial year when the Bolt and Zest will be introduced and Toyota too has only the Corolla Altis, which will not be a big number churner, and the Etios Cross for launch in May. 

Honda has also crossed the 1 lakh units mark in a financial year for the first time in January which is also the capacity of Honda’s Greater Noida plant. Right in time for increase in production, the Tapukara facility in Rajasthan will start production this month. It has a capacity of 1.2 lakh units per annum. Also, the Tapukara plant is already manufacturing the popular i-DTEC engine.

HCIL Senior Vice President (Marketing and Sales) Jnaneswar Sen recently told our sister website ETAuto.com that Honda will increase its network to 230 dealerships in 150 cities by next year and plans to sell 3 lakh cars per year by 2017. At present, Honda has 161 dealerships in 102 cities. Bolstering Honda’s car sales in India in the next financial year will be the Jazz and the Mobilio MPV. The Mobilio will be launched sometime between July-September and the Jazz will follow soon after in the third quarter. 

Both the Jazz and the Mobilio will be powered by the frugal 1.5-litre i-DTEC diesel unit too and as a result promise to be high sellers in their segment. With Mahindra sales declining in the current financial year and no new product expected any time soon besides a compact SUV on which the details are sketchy, Honda might as well snatch the third step on the podium by year-end. 

Sales – Top 10 car manufacturers

- Numbers Courtesy SIAM