Honda Motorcycles Plans to Triple Sales in India by 2016

Honda has high hopes for the Indian market, as the motorcycle arm of the manufacturer recently revealed it plans to triple sales on that market to 5 million units a year by 2016. Honda has made this announcement following the split up with the Hero Group, which holds the largest share of the Indian motorcycle market.

According to Japan’s Nikkei Business Daily, Honda aims to do that by increasing production of its Indian subsidiary Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India over the next five years.

The plan includes the redirection of resources from Hero Honda to HMSI. The wholly-owned subsidiary currently produces 1.55 million units a year out of its facility in Haryana, India. A second facility is set to open later this year in the Indian state Rajasthan with a planned production of 600,000 units for 2011. In addition to that, a third plant is in the works in Andhra Pradesh.

However, Honda’s hopes it will manage to fulfill its plans through the introduction of the new CBR250R on the market, a model that will hit Indian showrooms this April. Customers will be able to choose from three 2-tone paint schemes, namely Candy Ruby Red & Accurate Metallic Silver, Sword Silver Metallic & Accurate Silver Metallic, and Asteroid Black Metallic & Accurate Silver Metallic.

Online bookings for the new CBR250R have already started, and deliveries will be based on first to book, first one to be delivered basis. Official prices for the Indian market have been set at RS. 150,000 (US$3,330) for the base version and RS. 180,000 (US$3,999) for the ABS version.