Honda commences production of Mobilio MPV in Indonesia

Honda has been in the buzz lately with the launch of new City, the booking procedures for the car commenced last month and the pre-booking figure itself is 9,000. The new City is not the only exciting launch under Honda’s belt, there is another interesting launch and this time is a Multi-Purpose Vehicle called Mobilio MPV.

Honda is keen to introduce the Mobilio MPV in India and Indonesia, the company has inaugurated the second unit in the Indonesian city of Karawang. Mobilio MPV is a MPV version of Honda Brio. Honda has already experimented on bigger versions of hatchbacks with the launch of Amaze a sedan version of Brio. Mobilio MPV will run on a powerful diesel 1.5 liter engine adopted from Amaze and the same engine will run the 2014 Honda Jazz.

Mobilio MPV is Honda’s rare project in Multi Purpose vehicle segment, the car looks pretty grand from the images and its length dimension is 4.4 meters. This is a big launch in Indonesia and Honda’s Karawang unit was inaugurated by esteemed dignitaries, the Minister of Industry in Indonesia, was present at the event along with Honda Prospect Motors and Honda Motor Co Limited executives. The new plant in Karawang will receive resources like quality equipments, plastic painting, plastic injection, stamping and material supply unit.

Honda’s second Karawang factory will be the second to built Mobilio multi-purpose vehicle. The car will launch in the second quarterly year of 2014, and the company’s fresh unit in Indonesia will enhance the production capacity to two fold on an annual basis.The current production unit will witness an inflow of 200,000 vehicles compared to the current 80,000 unit capacity. Honda will bring Mobilio to Indian markets, but the entire production process won’t happen in Indian. The company will bring in components from Thailand or Indonesia in the form of (CKD) Completely Knocked down Units.

Honda’s main Indian factory is located in Noida, the company is establishing a unit in Rajasthan in the city of Tapukara. The production procedure for the car will start in 2014 April. When Jazz and Mobilio launch in India, the number of Honda cars will increase to 7. The current models in the market are CR-V, City, Amaze and Brio.

Mobilio MPV is a varied launch compared to Honda’s current lineup of Brio, City and CR-V models. The images of the car look pretty grand, and the insides are expected to be equally exciting. The car will be tailored with seven seats; the third and second row will have bench cushions. The last compartment will be clamped but roomy. The bench cushions have split facilities in ratio of 50:50 and in the 2^nd row the split capacity is 60:40. The dash arrangement will be similar to Amaze and Brio.

The competition levels in India car market has tightened, there are launches from every compartment like hatchbacks, sedans, sport utility vehicles and even multipurpose vehicles. Mobilio MPV will generate a string of MPV competitors, its fiercest rival will be a car which has bagged several family car awards called Maruti Suzuki Ertiga. Honda has already generated heaps of fortunes with Amaze sedan and has ripped apart the dominant nature of Maruti Swift Dzire. Now it would be interesting to observe if Honda can achieve similar fortunes with Mobilio MPV.