Honda Cars India will launch an SUV in the next fiscal which the company feels is going to be its third volume vehicle, said Kunal Behl, vice-president of marketing and sales of the company, here on Sunday.
The Japanese car manufacturer, which shut down its factory in Greater Noida in 2020, plans to concentrate on the premium segment after pulling out from mass market segments.
The company presently has a two-car portfolio — the City in petrol and hybrid versions and the Amaze. It has discontinued the production of the Jazz, BR-V, and WR-V, Behl said.
The company will close FY23 sales with 92,000 units, a growth of 8 per cent over FY22 sales of 88,000 units. It is yet to touch its best sales figure of 1.85 lakh units in 2016.
“We are going to launch the new SUV before the festival season. It is for the global market but will be launched in India first. Since SUV as a segment comprises about 50 per cent of industry sales, we are expecting the new SUV to be our third volume pillar apart from City and Amaze,” Behl said.
Honda is going to add to its portfolio with one new car launch every year for the next four or five years. “We will launch either a new vehicle or a new generation vehicle (full model change) every year,” said Behl.
The company has launched the fifth generation City, which is the market leader in mid-size sedans. The City has both petrol and strong hybrid powertrains and is BSVI Phase II compliant with RDE.
Currently, 8 per cent of the City sales are from the hybrid version and the company is targetting 15 per cent of sales to come from the hybrid powertrain. “We believe hybrid is the way to electrification. Globally, we are aiming at carbon neutrality by 2050 and we will have 100 per cent sales from electrified vehicles in 2040. By 2030, two-thirds of our sales will be from EVs,” Behl added.
The company is also aiming to have zero traffic collision fatalities by 2050 and so has installed Honda Sensing technology in the City, which is an advanced driver-assist safety technology that alerts the driver to minimise the risk of accidents. It has also registered a 25 per cent growth in exports.
