‘Honda gaining market share in India, but still has a long way to reach Hero’
: Six years after its separation with Hero MotoCorp Ltd, India’s largest twowheeler company and its erstwhile joint venture partner in India, Noriaki Abe, chief executive for Honda’s global motorcycle business, talks about the difficulties in snatching market share from Hero in rural markets. Edited excerpts: You will now be the chief executive for Honda’s global motorcycle business. That means your involvement with India will get even more intense. India is our biggest market now. Last year, India operations exceeded volume of Indonesia.
What are your expectations from this market now?
In this year (2016-17), Honda Motorcycle India could not reach the original target because of demonetisation. Such a loss will pass to the next fiscal year, which means the target will be very, very high. Basically, we will have to sell 1 million more next year. The target is to sell 6 million units.
Your expartner Hero MotoCorp has not seen the kind of growth that you have seen. How long will Honda take to surpass Hero in sales volume?
Luckily or unfortunately, the market has changed. The income of consumers is growing in urban areas. That helped us to grow in India because we have scooter models, which are very apt for urban ride. But, in rural areas, Hero is very, very strong. We never give up but it is very difficult to penetrate in rural areas.
In India, the situation is very difficult and different. Taste and mindset of consumer is very different. We will use our global expertise to strengthen our premiumness in the Indian market. But, we must continue to learn.
In motorcycle operations, we are gaining market share and volumes but still a long way to go to reach Hero.
Your twowheeler sales are driven by scooters. What stops you from introducing one brand that can change Honda’s fortunes in motorcycles?
Scooter is still the mainstay of our business plan. We are trying to launch many models in the motorcycle field. But in 110cc segment, we could not find one very strong scooter to compete with Splendor.