Upbeat on huge demand, Honda plans to double production of Navi

Mumbai: Surprised by the huge response to its 'by India, for India' bike Navi launched this April, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) is planning to double its production to around 1 lakh units soon.

The Japanese two-wheeler major, which is inching closer to unseating the decades-old market leader Hero MotoCorp, had unveiled the Navi at the Delhi Auto Expo in February at price of under Rs 40,000. It was rolled out commercially in April.

Testing the market for a very stripped-down model with the Navi, which was fully planned, designed, and produced for the local market, Honda had expected to sell only round 2,000 units a month in the first year.

But it has already got huge backlog, and therefore, the plan to double the output.

"We have been really surprised by the humongous response to the Navi. It's really exceeded our expectations. We have, therefore, decided to almost double our capacity to 90,000 to 1 lakh units soon," the company's Senior Vice-President for Sales and Marketing Yadvinder Singh Guleria told PTI.

At the launch, the company had said it would be happy if it could sell 2,000 units a month and had an installed capacity of 50,000 per annum.

But Guleria said even though Navi was developed only for India, which became the largest market for Honda globally in June this year, overtaking Indonesia, they are shipping the bike to Nepal now.

"Last month alone we shipped as many as 500 units to the Himalayan nation," Guleria said, adding, "going forward, the company may look at exporting the bike to other Saarc markets like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka as well."

Asked about investment for the additional capacity for Navi, which is being manufactured at the 1.2 million units per annum Tapukara plant in Rajasthan, he said no additional investment is needed as they have a flexible assembly line.

With the Navi or 'New additional value for India,' Honda has truly disrupted the domestic two-wheeler market as it has created an entirely new segment of fun riding, he said.

Navi is powered by a 110-cc Honda HET engine with automatic transmission and is the first 100 per cent Honda India R&D -- from concept development to commercial production.