Honda is betting big with its upcoming small car, which is anticipated to be a five seater and in the five lakh rupees range.

Takashi Nagai, President and CEO, Honda Siel Cars India Limited, , said that the technology for the future generation centered around the safety of the people and that was the reason why the company had evolved a philosophy to respect the value of its customers across the spectrum. He also stated that Indian auto market trend for small cars continue to fetch success for quite some time presently. Honda is planning to go ahead in providing next level compact cars in India, keeping in mind, the rapid economic progress the country has made in recent times.

Honda has two plants, the Great Noida facility and the Tapukara in Rajasthan. Greater Noida factory produces one lakh cars per annum and the Tapukara facility is capable of dishing out 60,000 cars per annum. Honda has recently invested 300 crores in Tapukara facility to produce power train unit for engine components and supply them to Greater Noida plant.

Honda"s Jazz, the company"s first hatchback in India, failed to yield benefits to the company, due to over pricing. But now, Honda will be keen to introduce a cost effective hatchback, for which it is looking to localize the car parts as much as possible in order to pitch its new small car with an aggressive pricing. Honda"s small car will hopefully come to the market in 2011.