Honda's New Gujarat Scooter Plant To Be World's Largest

Honda is aiming to become the country's number one two-wheeler manufacturer, and is setting up what will be the world's largest scooter manufacturing unit in Gujarat to achieve this target.

This follows the trend of Indians increasingly preferring the easy-to-use nature of scooters over options in other two-wheeler segments.

Also Read: Honda Cars India Limited Grows By 40% In July, 2014

Scooter sales have risen sharply in the ongoing fiscal, and now comprise 27 percent of all two-wheeler sales in the country, climbing from 8 percent a decade ago. Honda say that despite doubling their scooter production capacity, they are struggling to meet demand.

The most successful product for Honda in India, the Activa, has seen huge demand through its entire 13-year life cycle so far - customers still have to endure a waiting period.

Vice President of sales and marketing for Honda, YS Guleria, says Honda has a backlog of over 60,000 scooters, a figure that is set to increase during the upcoming holiday season. To combat this, the company is investing INR 1,100 crore for the new manufacturing facility in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

The new plant will take Honda's total capacity up to 58 lakh units by 2015-2016, and the company expects the that the dedicated scooter facility will make India its top global market.

DON'T MISS: VIDEO OF THE DAY