Honda enters mass car market

NEW DELHI, September 27, 2011(Tehelkanews)

Honda of Japan on Tuesday launched its much awaited small car Brio, thus making its entry into the crowded and highly competitive mass car segment.



Priced between Rs.3.95 lakh and Rs.5.10 lakh for four variants, Brio is equipped with four cylinder 1.2-litre i-VTEC engine delivering 88 PS of power and fuel economy of 18.4 km a litre.



Brio, which means 'energetic\' and 'cheerful\' in Italian, has been developed following Honda\'s extensive market surveys in India on people\'s driving needs and lifestyles. The Japanese carmaker has made extra efforts to ensure best safety and comfort features in its maiden small car, which is soon expected to overtake its popular sedan City to be its new flagship model. "With Brio, we will be entering a new segment for the first time in India. It has been designed and developed specially to meet the needs of customers here. We have been able to launch Brio at a competitive price due to our concerted efforts to control costs, maximise production efficiencies and minimise impact of currency fluctuations. We have achieved this through pure localisation, which is now at 80 per cent and soon go up to 90 per cent," Honda Siel Cars India President and CEO Takashi Nagai told journalists here.



Mr. Nagai also said the company was looking at exporting Brio to neighbouring countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Bhutan. "We are targeting revenues of Rs.112 crore this fiscal from exports of auto components from India. We have already started shipping components of Brio to Thailand from our facility in Rajasthan, while we are also exporting components for City and Jazz to Malaysia and Indonesia," he added.


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