Honda keen to push Mobilio sales in South Africa

Honda Cars India launched a big product lately called Mobilio MPV (Multi-purpose vehicle). It is the company’s first venture in MPV segment; a new Honda launch is exciting beyond words, let alone a MPV car, the excitement fever is still in mid air. It hasn’t even been a month post launch and the booking figure has touched an impressive 7,000 units.

Honda released the Mobilio in Indonesia and it is a huge hit with the sale of more than 46,000 pieces. It is a huge outcome since it was a January launch, now since the car is doing remarkably well in Indonesia, the company banks on South Africa to achieve similar levels of profits. The Senior Vice President in the marketing and sales department of Honda Cars India Limited, Shigeru Yamazaki make a statement on confirmation about exporting Mobilio to South Africa and said that the company is working on the procedure.

Shigeru said, Honda will not export Mobilio any time soon, and they have not yet come to a decision on when to start the procedure. It has been just a few days and everyone wants Mobilio, evident with 7,000 bookings and the expectations in domestic market are enormously high.

It is a major step for Honda to work on exporting Mobilio to South Africa, the general affairs, director and senior vice president of Honda Cars India Limited, RK Sharma said that Honda has several assembly units scattered in many countries which makes pathway for export constrained.

Mobilio is so different from other launches of Honda, it is so varied and exciting from the thrill levels in Amaze and new City put together. On top of everything it is reasonably priced and the initial offering is Rs 6.7 lakhs, and stretches to Rs 11.19 lakh for RS diesel car. Honda made a statement saying it does not want to use Mobilio as taxi and the main vision with the car is to bring in newness with a new MPV segment.

Honda is working on expanding its outlet unit with the creation of 230 dealerships splashed across 150 cities by 2015 March. Out of the estimate about 75% will fill up in smaller cities and towns. The future dealership strengthening aim will be much more than current capacity of 179 units in 114 cities. The company at the moment is on an 83% year on year growth path. In Financial Year 14 Honda rolled out 134,000 units and hopes to give out 200,000 pieces in the current fiscal and by 2017 March the volume is expected to explode to 300,000. By 2017 Honda is hoping to achieve global sale output of 6 million units.

The installation capacity of Honda Cars India is 240,000 pieces; it is an outcome out of the combination of two units being Tapukara in Rajasthan and Greater Noida. The production capacity of Tapukara unit is admirable and Honda is of the view that the volume can efficiently double.

Honda’s move to export Mobilio to South Africa sounds practical; it will meet the needs of the strong family bonding system in the country and will churn many dreams into reality.