It is quite a known fact that the Honda City has been the market king for a decade and it was only recently that it lost out to competition like the Hyundai Verna. Honda’s other products like the Accord and CR-V turned out to be not-so-great performers mainly because of an absence of a diesel engine. Honda introduced the Amaze compact sedan in our market in 2013 and along with the vehicle, Honda also marked the entry of its first diesel-powered car in India.
The Honda Amaze received an amaze-ing response from buyers and it started generating pretty good sales numbers (7374 units last month). Then Honda dropped another bomb by launching the 2014 City which packs in quite a punch to blow away its competitors. The City was lacking a diesel engine all this while and Honda finally rectified this issue which was the most significant reason for the City to lose out to rivals. The 2014 City too has received a great response and now Honda Cars has generated an all-time high sales record of 18,426 units for March 2014 which is 83.4% higher than the 10,004 units sold in March 2013.
The bigger news though is the the sales of the Honda City last month, the company sold a whooping 9518 units of the car which is more than what all other manufacturers in this segment sold combined. Honda has also registered annual sales of 1,34,339 units during the financial year 2013-14 which marks an improvement of 83% on a Year-On-Year basis. The manufacturer has also increased its export volumes by 121% during the financial year 2013-14 with 5798 units compared to the previous year’s 2622 units.
It seems Honda’s strategy of introducing a diesel powerplant in India has worked very well and the company is overwhelmed at the response from buyers. Honda also started their new production facility in Rajasthan recently. With the launch of the new Jazz and the Mobilio MPV slated to happen in the second half of the year, Honda is going to be on a roll and competitors sure have some reason to worry.
