Honda Buys 380 Acres Of Land For Third Manufacturing Plant in Gujarat

The new site is at Vithalapur, which is around 80 km northwest of Ahmedabad. At the same place, last year, the company had opened a facility for two-wheelers. Honda Cars India bought land from individuals and completed the transactions this month.

Honda's current facilities at Greater Noida and Tapukura, Rajasthan, utilize just 60 to 70% of their combined production capacity of 2,40,000 vehicles.

Honda Cars India chief executive Yoichiro Ueno stated, "we have finished the land acquisition recently, Honda Cars India chief executive Yoichiro Ueno told ET. Honda is confident of long-term potential growth of India and is committed to the region. At GDP growth of 7% per annum, it is among the fastest growing markets and Honda would want to participate in its future growth."

Honda expanded their production in India from 60,000 units to 2,00,000 units in a short span of time. Moreover, the sales figures of the company fell 20% in the April to January period of fiscal 2017 to 1.24 lakh units, even as the market grew 9%.

Ueno further stated, "the per capita in India is set to cross $4,000 in coming years and when that happens, it brings more people in an income bracket where they can afford to buy a car and Honda wants to be ready when that happens"

Honda recently launched the City and the sedan has already received bookings for 7,500 units. The company also said that they will very soon enter the fast-growing crossover and SUV space in the near future.

Sadly, Honda is unlikely to meet a goal it set in 2015, of selling 3,00,000 lakh cars in India in 2017. On this note, Ueno said that he will be happy if it can utilize the existing capacity of 2.40 lakh units in the next couple of years.

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