Honda Cars India has moved upwards to grab the position of India’s third largest car brand after Maruti and Hyundai from 6 position a year ago, riding on the success of its two new models -- diesel powered compact sedan and the mid-size sedan Honda City.
It clocked total sales of 100,495 units during first 10 months of this fiscal as against 56,713 units in a year-ago period. Honda was the only player to hit six digit sales during the period after Maruti (719,842 units) and Hyundai (310,864 units) and total domestic sales surpassed volumes of Tata, Toyota and Ford. Its compact sedan Amaze, launched in April 2013, has been sustaining the sales momentum in the entry level sedan category that had an unchallenged ruler Maruti Swift Dzire. Amaze proved to be not only a gamer changer for Honda, but also created some excitement in the segment as more players are queuing up to roll out new models.
The other model that has received unprecedented response is new Honda City, which regained its top slot in the mid-size sedan segment in January after losing to Hyundai Verna two years ago. City sold 7,184 units, while the total category volumes stood at 15,858 units, including 3,803 units of Verna.
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While Honda hopes to sustain the momentum, it will further strengthen the portfolio with two more models next fiscal – a 7-seat MPV Mobilio and the new Jazz, a premium hatchback.