Honda SIEL India did face a tough time in past few months with the long pending deliveries of Honda Brio in India with the Thailand plant under recovery from floods in Thailand which caused complete production halt there. Recently the Thailand plant has recovered from the flood after-effects and is now operational. However in February 2012 itself, Honda SIEL India had made alternate part sourcing arrangements and started production of Brio, City and Jazz in India to clear the backlog. Honda Brio is a very competitive car in its segment with great features, peppy and fuel efficient Honda 1.2 Litre iVTEC MPFI Petrol engine and plush feeling of Honda quality on the inside. With the Thailand plant in good shape again, Honda will launch Honda Brio in Indonesia this year by September during the Indonesia International Motor Show. These cars will be produced in Thailand and will be exported to Indonesia as Honda does not intent to set up Brio assembly operations in Indonesia as yet.
image – Honda Brio Small Car
The Brio to be sold in Indonesia will use a different variant of the iVTEC engine, it has same displacement as the 1.2 Litre 4 cylinder engine, but it is a 3 cylinder engine already in use in Honda Jazz in Indonesia. The engine is more fuel efficient compared to the 4 Cylinder unit. The sales target of Honda Brio in Indonesia is about 2000 units an year to start with and the further imports volume will be fine-tuned depending on the demand for Brio in Indonesian market after the launch.
To keep up with the expected future demand in Indonesia, Honda will be increasing its total annual capacity to three times from the existing capacity of 60,000 units per year. This capacity expansion will be achieved by setting up a new plant in coming years with an additional capacity of 1,20,000 car per year. Brio is an interesting product which is expected to be an entry into volume segment for Honda in Asian markets where it has been only partly present with more expansive offerings like Honda Jazz. It will be interesting to see how many places does Honda Brio reach in coming years after its debut journey which started from Thailand followed by India in 2011.
source – detikoto via – IAB
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