Amaze-ing: All petrol Honda eyes diesel space; Will it fight the Dzire? - Pitch (blog)

Maintenance free Honda cars that had evaded the lure of diesel till now, couldn't ignore it any more. With petrol prices on the ever-rise, Honda Cars India has decided to get into the diesel space too. Honda's debut diesel engine – the 1.5 litre i-DETC, will make its debut in its upcoming sedan 'Amaze', to be launched on April 11, later this month. With the ongoing fluctuation of fuel prices in the country, most automobile manufacturers are toiling between their diesel and petrol variants. Even though cars are going heavy on petrol, the price gap between diesel and petrol still remains around Rs 20 throughout. From a consumer's point of view, the mileage of a diesel vehicle is economical but the maintenance is high. On the opposite, petrol is heavy on the mileage front but maintenance is low. At the end of it what remains is brand equity. The diesel technology will be adopted sequentially in all of Honda's upcoming models too. Honda claims that the i-DETC will create a benchmark with the lightest body in the segment with similar configurations, give a fuel efficiency of 25.8 kmpl and will have an acceleration of 100PS. Hironori Kanayama, President and CEO, Honda Cars India says that the company is ready to expand its business in the country with the launch of Amaze and the new diesel engine and the 10 per cent of the car population that it caters to, will go up to 50 per cent of the total passenger vehicles in the coming few years. According to Gaadi.com, the current sedan segment leader is Maruti Dzire with an average sale of 13,000 to 14,000 units per month. Others are Tata Indigo eCS, Hyundai Accent and Mahindra Verito, but their combined monthly sale is less than Dzire being sold in a similar price range. Umang Kumar, Co-Founder and CEO, Gaadi.com believes that Honda is a very strong brand in the Indian market and customers have been waiting for an affordable diesel sedan from this Japanese brand for some time now. "The Amaze range will start at Rs 5 lakh for the petrol and Rs 6 lakh for the diesel version, thus not only giving Dzire, a run for its money but also eating up into Maruti's market share in a big way. The Sail sedan and Verito notchback will add to the damage and help change the market completely," he adds. Along with the unveiling of its first diesel engine, Honda also let out its expansion plans for the coming and the next year, Yoshiyuki Matsumoto who has taken up the role of Vice President of Asian Honda Motor, says that the Greater Noida Honda plant has a capacity of 440 cars per day and it is investing Rs 2,500 crore in its upcoming plant in Tapukara, Rajasthan, to be operational from 2014. The combined capacity of Honda's plants in 2014 will go up to 2,40,000 units per annum. "We expect a 50 per cent share of units from the emerging markets and the rest from the mature in a few years time," he says. He expects the total market to be around six million units. Honda claims that with its upcoming plant in Rajasthan, it is going to revv up the localised manufacturing of raw materials to 100 per cent and 60 per cent of parts. Honda now has an export revenue of Rs 242 crore, which will also double after this plant comes up in 2014. But is Honda too late for the diesel run? Matsumoto says that the market will change. "Our commitment is to meet the consumer's diverse requirements and we do not think we are late in the diesel race," he adds. Raman Kumar Sharma, Senior Vice President and Director, General Affairs says that Honda expects to be a dominant player when it comes to diesel engines. "I would say that a five per cent market share is very impressive in accordance to 3.5 per cent as of now. With the new diesel engine, we will cater to a larger audience," he says. The brand's product range includes Brio, City , Accord and CR-V which are produced in the greater Noida Facility. The company claims to have a distribution network of 150 facilities across 97 cities in the country. via Technology - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNEmT8KlAwgDR-L6L12JEsng9KBWRQ&url=http://pitchonnet.com/blog/2013/04/03/amaze-ing-all-petrol-honda-eyes-diesel-space-will-it-fight-the-dzire/

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