India to overtake Indonesia as HMSI’s top-wheeler market

Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India is well on its way to becoming Honda’s top two-wheeler market, globally. The Japanese manufacturer’s projections show that HMSI will overtake Honda Indonesia in the next couple of years, thanks to the capacity expansion across its manufacturing facilities in the country.

With over eight lakh sales last year, HMSI currently clocks 25 per cent of Honda's global revenue, a number which it plans to increase to 27 per cent, next fiscal. Indonesia has a much bigger contribution to Honda’s revenue on account of the higher sales of more expensive models in the line-up. At a time when the Indian two-wheeler industry grew by 4 per cent, HMSI clocked an overall growth of 11 per cent, maintaining its consistent growth.

Speaking about HMSI’s growth, Keita Muramatsu, president and CEO of the company said, "HMSI's volume contribution is now very close to Honda Indonesia which makes us a strong number two. Indonesia clocks around 4.8 million units in annual sales and our plan for HMSI this fiscal is 4.5 million units. Both of us (HMSI and Honda Indonesia) are planning additional capacity so in the next couple of years we will cross Indonesia.”

Honda’s growth in India is driven by its low-capacity vehicles, especially the Activa. The company started the automatic scooter trend more than a decade ago and currently enjoys a 28 per cent overall market share among the two-wheelers. The company is currently focussing on building an all-scooter manufacturing plant in Gujarat with an annual capacity of 12 lakh units.