Honda to double Navi’s production capacity

Buoyed by the demand for the scooter, Honda has decided to ramp up the production of the Navi. The Japanese manufacturer is planning to double the capacity for the Navi at the Rajasthan facility, bringing it up to 1 lakh units per annum.

The Honda Navi was first unveiled at the 2016 Auto Expo as an experiment. While the company didn’t have high expectations from this quirky little ‘monkey bike’, the officials have been pleasantly surpirised by the interest generated by the Navi. In the first three months since the company commenced deliveries, Honda has managed to sell over 15,000 units of the Navi. This demand has now encouraged the company to ramp up the production of the Navi.

Commenting on the motivation behind developing the Navi, Yadvinder Singh Guleria, senior VP, sales and marketing, HMSI said, "Our analysis showed that the percentage of youngsters buying into the 110cc segment was very small. We decided that there needs to be some fun element and uniqueness into the segment."

Based on a new platform developed by the company’s Indian R&D department, the Navi is powered by a 110cc single-cylinder engine from the Activa 3G. It is currently the most affordable model in Honda’s line-up. Reports suggest that taking the response into consideration, Honda is now developing different iterations of the Navi, though there is no official word from Honda regarding the same. We recently tested out the Navi to see its all-round capabilities. Click here to read how it fared when we put it through five rigorous tests.