Honda City car sales dip by 24 per cent in Q1

"Though our sales was lower during the first quarter of the current fiscal, we have targeted to sell 11,000-12,000 units of Honda City cars," HSCIL president and chief executive officer (CEO), T Fujisaki said here.

"We have been in operation in India for only a year and a half. Currently our focus is on the Honda City model and on increasing its sales volume and market share," Fujisaki said.

Honda City’s all-India market share in the fiscal 1998-99 was 23.1 per cent in the mid-size car segment, he added. "The market situation is quite dynamic today. Therefore, to tap the full potential of the market, we areclosely studying the market, the economy as a whole and the customer’s tastes, references and satisfaction factors," he said.

Since the launch of Honda City car in January 1998, the company has sold 13,035 units till the end of fiscal 1998-99, company sources said. HSCIL had sold 9,631 cars during the financial year 1998-99, they added.

HSCIL has five variants of its Honda City car models and their on-road prices ranges between Rs 6 lakh to 8.30 lakh. Honda City cars have been certified by the Pune-based Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), the official certification body for vehicles in India.

The emission levels of Honda City cars are in fact much lower than the maximum permissible values as per the more stringent Euro-II emission standards, sources said.

HSCIL is a joint venture of Honda Motor Co Ltd, Japan and SIEL Ltd of India. The company was incorporated in December 1995. The company has a manufacturing plant in Uttar Pradesh which has an installed capacity of producing 30,000 unitsevery year on two shifts basis. The total investment on the project would be about Rs 850 crore in five to seven years out of which Rs 500 crore has already been spent, sources said.