Honda Mobilio bookings cross 10,000 in one week

While the company has a capacity to roll out 180,000 units across all its four-wheeler models, there is more room for further utilisation

After the recent success of Amaze and the all-new City, Japanese automotive major Honda today said its newly-launched Mobilio MPV had received more than 10,000 bookings within a week of its entry into the Indian market.

Raman Kumar Sharma, senior vice president and director of Honda Cars India Limited said the family-fit Mobilio's bookings stood at 10,170 by now across the country. He was here to launch Mobilio in AP and Telangana.

Sharma said if the bookings kept pouring beyond the existing capacity for a particular shift at its Greater Noida plant, it would have to plan a second work shift to meet the demand. However, he said such a move might take 3-4 months from now. While Honda has a capacity to roll out 180,000 units across all its four-wheeler models, there is more room for further utilisation.

Honda Cars senior vice president and director of sales and marketing, Shigeru Yamazaki, said its sales rose 40 per cent this quarter up to July 31, when compared with the same period last fiscal. He attributed the turnaround to the introduction of new launches during the period. Yamazaki also confirmed Honda's plans to launch Jazz, a premium hatchback, in January next year.

On what would be the company’s sales target this year, he said they hoped growth this year would be better than that of the previous year. He also said Honda had planned to export 50 per cent more four-wheelers to South Africa and neighbouring markets this year from its facilities in India.

Last year, Honda had marketed 6,000 units to these markets.

Honda's MPV Mobilio would be priced between Rs 6.52 lakh and Rs 10.89 lakh (ex-showroom Hyderabad and would be made available in both diesel and petrol variants). To appeal to younger audience with the comfort of a spacious MPV, Mobilio will also be available in an exclusive sporty RS variant would be delivered from September 2014.