Hot wheels promise to ‘amaze’

Car maker Honda plans to launch three cars this year as part of a strategy to grow the market share “significantly”, said Rajesh Goel, SVP and Director (Sales and Marketing) of Honda Cars India.

Speaking at the launch of the 2nd generation Amaze, the first of the three cars, in the city on Tuesday, he told presspersons that the company would unveil the premium sedan Civic and CR-V, a popular SUV, after September.

The company, which is eyeing a growth higher than the 7-8% at which the industry is expected to grow this fiscal, had clocked an 8% growth last fiscal with sales of around 1.70 lakh units. The new launches were poised to take the sales past the 2 lakh mark.

On the Civic, he said the company had sold around 60,000 units until the model was discontinued in 2013. The upcoming launch would provide an upgrade option to the set of loyal customer base that Civic commands.

The 2nd generation Amaze has been built on a new platform and includes a diesel CVT, a first for Honda globally, he said. The compact sedan comes in six variants of petrol and diesel.

The (ex-showroom) price range of petrol variants starts from ₹5,59,900 and goes up to ₹7,99,900, while the diesel variants are priced between ₹6,69,900 and ₹8,99,900.

In the five years since Amaze was launched, the company sold 2.60 lakh units of car, he added.