Updated on 25th October 2012
Honda Cars India limited has started the export of Brio hatchback from India to south Africa by sending the first lot of 390 Brio cars to South Africa. Honda plans to export over 1600 cars by the end of the financial year to south African markets. Brio is the first Honda car to be exported from India to SA.
Updated on 8th August 2012
We had reported earlier that Honda is planning to launch its diesel engine powered models in 2013 and is also willing to export diesel vehicles and engines from India to other global markets. The picture seems to be getting clearer as some more information has surfaced the internet.
As per the latest report Japanese major Honda SIEL Cars India is planning to make India its South Asian manufacturing hub and will also export cars and engines from here to Africa and other global markets. Although Honda has always preferred local production of cars in a particular market but this time around it will be exporting Honda City sedan and other cars to South Africa. South Africa is one of the largest overseas market and manufacturers like Toyota Kirloskar Motors, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra also export their right hand driven vehicles to the same.
The cost competiveness levels in India are quite high which the Japanese major wants to utilize for its manufacturing hub. The hub will be an alternative to the Thailand facility which recently got badly affected due to multiple natural calamities.
One of the company officials said,
“We keep exploring new markets for growth opportunities. We currently export some models to the neighboring markets like Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. However, we do not have anything specific to share at this moment,”
As of now Honda is seen as a small player in the export market. Where car makers such as Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and Nissan Motors export enormous number of cars to overseas markets, Honda manages to sell around 100 vehicles only in countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. But since Honda Brio has arrived in the portfolio of Honda, it is making ambitious plans and is eyeing at other markets to increase its global presence.
Moreover, in the coming months apart from the City, Honda will also be offering a sedan based on Honda Brio and together they will greatly help the exports sales to increase.
“The new sedan would ideally be customized for the Indian market, but gradually also become a major part of the export strategy,” said a senior Honda official.
All that we can hope is that Honda does well in the new markets and gives tough competition to other players. Also as per a recent report, Honda is planning to launch Brio Automatic in India with CVT transmission. We will keep you posted on the updates, stay tuned to Car Blog India.
