July 30, 2014: Honda Motors which have successfully targeted India in the recent years with its new Honda City, Honda Amaze the sub 4 metre sedan and an MPV, Honda Mobilio is all set to launch a new small car and a compact sports utility vehicle. This move of the company is been seen as an attempt to break into the mass market segment in India which is presently dominated by Maruti and Hyundai. Nissan, very recently has made an attempt to break into this segment by launching its Datsun brand in India and under the Datsun brand has launched a mass market car ‘Go’.
Small cars have been ruling the roost in India and with hatchbacks and sedans in the sub 4 metre sedan making the major chunk of the sales. Maruti Alto, Hyundai Grand i10 and very recently cars like Honda Amaze and compact SUV’s like EcoSport , Renault Duster and Nissan Terrano have been making a mark in India. In fact Ford EcoSport and Duster have given a new lease of like for Ford and Nissan. The sub-Rs 4 lakh car market accounts for almost 35-40% of the overall passenger car market.
According to sources the process has moved from consideration stage to real development work in the past couple of months and part of the development work will be carried out in India. Honda is looking to maximise the use of local products to keep the costs under control. Yoshiyuki Matsumoto, president and CEO of Honda Motor India was quoted as saying about this development, “It (introduction of the car) is not very far, but we can’t give you an exact time.”
Honda which has code named its small car as ‘World A Entry Car’ is also looking forward to launch this new model in Africa, Indonesia and other South Asian nations.
