Honda Cars India on Wednesday forayed into the multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) segment with launch of its much-awaited Mobilio, which will compete with the existing players – Maruti Suzuki and Toyota Kirloskar Motor – in the category.
The seven-seater is aggressively priced between Rs 6.49 lakh and Rs 8.76 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) for the petrol variant, while diesel model is priced between Rs 7.89 and Rs 10.86 lakh.
The company has received about 5,000 bookings for the vehicle since July 8 when the pre-bookings began. According to experts, the vehicle may have a waiting period of about 2-5 months depending on the variant.
The Mobilio will directly compete with models like Maruti's Ertiga, Toyota's Innova, Nissan's Evalia and Mahindra & Mahindra's (M&M) Xylo.
Most manufacturers are looking to increase their presence in the utility/sports utility vehicle segment, which is currently dominated by players like M&M and Toyota. The segment currently forms almost 21% of the total passenger vehicle segment.
Honda has already tasted success with its Amaze and new City sedans since last year.
The India unit will account for 25% of the Japanese carmaker's Asia Pacific sales target of 1.2 million units by March 2017, managing officer for Honda, Yoshiyuki Matsumoto said on Wednesday at a press conference in Delhi.
To achieve the sales target, the company is planning to raise the number of dealers in India to 230 by March 2015 from 179, currently.
Last year, the Japanese manufacturer launched its first compact sedan – Amaze, which also marked its entry into the diesel category. Company's new City which was launched in January this year, soon became the segment best-seller.
With sales driven by sedans, the company posted its highest ever annual sales of 134,339 units during fiscal 2014, recording 83% growth over last fiscal.
Despite the positive pre-booking response for Mobilio, experts feel that the challenge before Honda will be the capacity constraint.
"The company is still catering to the demand of City and Amaze. Hence, Mobilio could find limited production, increasing the waiting period," said a consultant, who did not wish to comment.
Other players like Hyundai Motor India and Renault India too have lined up products in this category, which will be launched in 1-2 years.
Mobilio offers 1.5 litre i-DTEC diesel and 1.5L i-VTEC petrol engines. With the continuing strong demand of Amaze and City, Honda's sales in India have grown 40% to 40,516 units in the April-June quarter from the year-ago period.
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