India key market; Will continue investments, electrification: Honda
Out of the five models, the company has recently launched its mid-sized SUV Elevate.
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TOKYO: Japanese auto major Honda Motor Co Ltd will continue to invest in India, a key market for its future growth strategy while also pushing electrification in line with its global plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
At the global level, Honda is open for alliances and collaboration with other firms if it offers a “win-win” situation in the wake of new development in the mobility sector, Honda Motor president-CEO Toshihiro Mibe told visiting Indian journalists at the company’s headquarters here in an interaction. “Our strategy is to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. To achieve that, we have milestones set for 2030-35 and 2040...For Honda, the Indian market is a big market and it is the market where electrification is rapidly progressing for both cars and two-wheelers,” he said.
Underlining the significance of India, Asian Honda Motor Co president-CEO and head of regional operations (Asia & Oceania) Toshio Kuwahara said,”The Indian market is quite important for us because of its scale. It is already number seven in the world for us (in terms of units sold).”
Excluding China, he said, “When we look at the Asia Pacific region, electrification or the market for electric vehicles is going to be critical and because India is an important one, we think that there should be an emphasis on India as well.”
With restructuring of its operations in India behind, Honda had in June this year announced plans to launch five new SUVs, including a fully electric model, in India by 2030 as it tries to revive its fortune in the country, where SUVs have been the fastest growing segment in the passenger vehicles segment.
Out of the five models, the company has recently launched its mid-sized SUV Elevate. As part of the restructuring exercise, Honda has stopped production at its Greater Noida plant and offered voluntary retirement schemes to employees. It now rolls out vehicles from the Tapukara plant in Rajasthan.
On investments on the new launches and electrification, Honda Cars India president-CEO Takuya Tsumura said,”Our target is to launch a battery electric vehicle within the next three years, so naturally, there will be some amount of investment for them. Our plan is to keep progressing, pushing forward our electrification.”
