Honda, on Tuesday, announced plans to focus on mass volume bike segment by launching 110cc motorcycle ‘Dream Yuga', priced at Rs.44,642. The Japanese bike-maker, which has signed Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar as its brand ambassador, will be tapping rural market to more than double revenue share from the two-wheeler operations in the country by 2020.
India-specific
The new bike, Dream Yuga, is an India-specific mass motorcycle which fulfils customer needs. To be available in three variants, the bike delivers 8.5 BHP power and a mileage of 72 km a litre. “This is the cheapest bike that Honda has in its entire portfolio…this is the first 110cc bike in India, targeted at the masses,” Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. President and CEO Keita Muramatsu told journalists here. “In the last fiscal, Indian motorcycle and scooter business contributed 13 per cent to Honda's two-wheeler revenue. We want this to go up to 30 per cent by 2020. We will introduce more mass segment bikes in order to compete with rivals in rural locations…there is a scope for launching more affordable and low-cost bikes in India. We may develop bikes for a segment lower than Dream Yuga,” he added.
In 2011-12, the company sold over 19.96-lakh units in India, while the total two-wheelers market stood at 1.34 crore units.
HMSI Vice-President and Operating Head (Sales and Marketing) Y. S. Guleria said, “We hope to sell three-lakh units of the Dream Yuga in 2012-13. We want to increase Honda's share in the Indian two-wheeler market and the 100cc-110cc segment contribute more than 50 per cent of this.” He also said HMSI would ramp up its sales and service network to 2,000 outlets by March 2013 from 1,500 outlets at present. The company is also looking at increasing its exports from 1.11-lakh units in 2011-12 to 1.5 lakh units in the current fiscal.
