Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Private Limited recently inaugurated its largest and highest productivity plant globally at Narsapura in Karnataka. VIKANT SAHAY visited the plant and talked to the company’s President and CEO, Minoru Kato on various issues related to the company’s plans for the future.
HERALD: India is now the biggest production base for Honda Motorcycle Scooter India Ltd (HMSI) globally. Is there a further plan for expansion here?
MINORU KATO: If you are talking about this Narsapura factory in Karnataka, because of the space limitation this is the maximum production. If you are talking about the additional production capacity, we need to undergo a fresh feasibility study for a new factory in the future which is under discussion at present. India is now the biggest production base of Honda worldwide and with the new 4th line inaugurated on August 2, an additional of 0.6 million units commercial production starts. With this expansion, Karnataka plant is now Honda’s biggest plant worldwide with 2.4 million units annual production capacity and India becomes the No 1 production base of Honda worldwide. Also, the Honda two-wheeler India’s total capacity from its present four plants increases from 5.8 million to 6.4 million units in FY’2017-18.
HERALD: Why do you think that there is a need to expand? What are the preparations underway?
MK: Our immediate target is to enhance our sales and become number one in market share in India. Next year we will also have new braking systems with ABS. We are also planning to have everything in place for BS VI as we have to prepare a new engine which will be of fuel injection type and do away with carborator type engines by 2020.
HERALD: Tell us about Honda’s growth trajectory in India and the demand trend for automatic scooters in the Indian market?
MK: In the first quarter of FY’2017-18, Honda two-wheelers India registered an aggressive growth and led the industry momentum. Growing double the speed of industry at 19 per cent, Honda alone contributed 68 per cent to industry’s new volumes resulting in 3 per cent market share gain to highest ever 30 per cent. While expanding leadership in scooter segment (59 per cent market share), Honda is now also the new No 2 motorcycle brand of India. The latest expansion further fortifies Honda’s ability to serve the market faster with its increased annual production capacity to 6.4 million units from all plants. In the long term, Honda two-wheelers India’s steady and strategic investments will power our dreams to make India the export hub worldwide.
HERALD: You claim to have a totally green factory. Tell us more about it.
MK: Developed with a green factory concept, the Narsapura plant India’s only 100 per cent rain water harvesting system and nearly four lakh litres of water is recycled and reused per day with zero external water consumption and is a zero liquid discharge plant. Also, the plant is committed to achieve 80 per cent of energy requirement from solar power which means generation of 85,000 KWH of solar power per day by October 2017. This would also help reduce carbon footprint by 50,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
