Honda Cars to launch India-focused SUV

The new Honda Amaze has also been launched to give a premium offering to the customers and is priced between Rs 6,32,000 to Rs 11,15,000 (ex-showroom Delhi).

Hyderabad: Honda Cars India (HCIL) is looking to launch its new India-focused SUV soon. A top company official confirmed that the automaker is keen to launch a made-in-India compact sports utility vehicle (SUV) specifically in the near future.

“We have been studying the SUV segment for quite some time and we realized that this segment is high-growth in nature. We had to discontinue our CRV as our Greater Noida plant had to be shut. Keeping all this in mind, we decided to launch an India-focused brand new SUV soon,” said Rajesh Goel, senior vice-president and director-marketing and sales, HCIL, without giving any further details on the model, launch date and price.

He was speaking at the launch of the company’s new Honda Amaze ahead of the festive season. He also added that the company is keen to start its electrification journey in India and is planning a hybrid car roll out by next fiscal. “Globally, the company has the mandate to go full electric by 2040 and our concept for India is also the same. We will be launching our first hybrid car in India by next fiscal,” Goel said.

The new Honda Amaze has been enhanced to give a premium offering to the customers and is priced between Rs 6,32,000 to Rs 11,15,000 (ex-showroom Delhi). The Amaze is the automaker’s entry-level model and about 60 per cent of its user base comes from tier-2 cities and 40 per cent of the buyers are young millennials.

On the semiconductor shortage and their capacity utilisation, Goel said, “The shortage did disrupt our production in April and May and we are monitoring it globally. We should be able to manage the situation in the next few months. Our capacity utilisation has grown to 70 per cent from 30 per cent last year and we plan to increase our exports by four times in comparison with last year.”