Honda aims to grow over 150% in 100-110 cc segment

The two-wheeler giant launches Dream Neo in Bhopal

Against soaring fuel prices, two-wheeler giant, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) Pvt Ltd on Wednesday said it would give its customers a ride with its most-fuel efficient and most economical bikes under 100 cc range.

The company said it would not only reinvent markets of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan but would also rave up production by expanding its Karnataka facility to attain 4.6 million bikes per year from existing 4 million bikes (from its all three plants) production capacity.

The company came up with three variants of 100-110 CC bikes under its Dream series. All the variants of the bike are priced in sub-50k range. The newly launched Dream Neo range has been priced at Rs 44,467 (ex-showroom) in Bhopal.

“Honda aims to grow over 150 per cent in 100-110 cc segment year-over-year and eye 43 per cent growth with 39.3 lakh unit sales in 2014,” said Y S Guleria, vice president sales & marketing, HMSI.

All the variants are equipped with eco-technology that renders “unmatched” fuel-efficiency in its segment at 74 km per liter besides tubeless tyres, best in class torque at 7,500 round per minute.

“Dream Neo is Honda's most affordable and most fuel efficient two-wheeler ever introduced in the country. While markets of Madhya Pradesh have large two-wheeler market but majority or 64 per cent  market share is dominated by affordable 100-110 cc fuel-efficient segment," said P Rajagopi, divisional head of the company for Central region said.

On company’s late entry into the entry-segment, he said, “It is an strategic plan as the company (Honda) had some strategic commitment to the previous partner (Hero Motros). We are targeted at cornering 10% market share in Madhya Pradesh with these bikes, 12% in Uttar Pradesh which posts 150,000 bikes sale per month. In other words we will be selling approximately 5000 units per month in Madhya Pradesh and 18000 in Uttar Pradesh. We are likely to expand our Karnataka plant by another 6 lakh units per year from existing 12 lakh units per year (at fully capacity)."