Honda to export vehicles to Sri Lanka

CHENNAI: Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt Ltd (HMSI) - a subsidiary of Honda Motor Company Ltd, Japan is all set to start exporting its vehicles to Sri Lanka, a HMSI top official said here on Saturday.
    
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the launch of company's new 125cc motorcycle 'CBF Stunner' here, HMSI All India Sales Head Y Guleria said "we will be exporting our motorcycles and scooters to Sri Lanka shortly".
    
"With this the company would be exporting its vehicles to 42 countries" he said and added that main focus would be in the European and Latin American market.
    
Elaborating on the international market which contributes three per cent of the company's exports, Guleria said "last year around 32,000 vehicles were sold in the overseas market".
    
It includes motorcycles like Unicorn, Shine and the scooterette Dio, he said.
    
On the company's future plans, Guleria said  "We have plans to launch a 100cc motorcycle, a limited edition of the 150cc motorcycle - Honda Unicorn and also to import the Honda CBR 1000 'S' series soon" Guleria said.
    
Though the 100cc vehicle is slated to hit the market later next year, Guleria declined to comment on the launches of limited edition of Honda Unicorn and the CBR vehicles.
    
"We do not want to disclose it now but we have plans" he said.
    
About the company's new motorcycle CBF Stunner, he said they are hoping to increase their market share from the present 11 per cent to 13 per cent, over the next two years.
   
"We have targetted to sell 80,000 units of CBF Stunner and the total vehicles of 10 lakh units this fiscal" Guleria said.

On the monthly average sales volume, Guleria said the company has sold around 40,000 units of Activa, 4,000 units of Dio, 9,000 units of Aviator, 5,000 units of Eterno, 6,600 units of 150cc motorcycle Unicorn and 18,000 units of motorcycle Shine.
    
In addition to this, the company also has plans to increase its dealership network.
   
"Currently we have 590 dealers comprising 316 dealers and 274 sub-dealers and by next fiscal we will be having 700 dealers across the country" he said and added that would comprise of 360 main dealers and 340 subdealers.
    
On the overall sales volume, more than 30 per cent of sales comes from South India, he said.
    
Tamil Nadu which has 24 dealers comes second after Kerala, he added.
    
Since the launch of CBF Stunner on June 30, 2008 in North India, HMSI has sold 5,000 units, he said.
    
CBF Stunner is priced at Rs 48,900 (Ex showroom Chennai) for kick start and drum brakes version while self start and disc brake version are priced at Rs 53,500 (Ex showroom Chennai) he said.