( Muramatsu you said that the Africa Twin would be assembled locally. Can you please shed some more light on it? Keita Muramatsu (KM):

BI:

san,

Yes, though not immediately. Right now it is being considered internally for study purposes. Currently we are producing the Africa Twin in Japan. But we will get CKD kits from Japan for assembly in India.

You see, in fact, whenever we start this discussion it is always from the statement that Aoyama made two years ago. That statement was in a certain context, when the market wasn’t growing that much. The growth was just three per cent and it has been similar since and this year it is just one per cent. We already had our robust plan in place about two years ago. Our capacity at our factories in Karnataka and Gujarat has gone up and we have a plan to fully utilise that capacity which are building now, because there is a gap between demand and supply even today. So while we are chasing our own volume target and the market is not growing, obviously there is going to be an increase in the market share. So based on that, Honda said that if we are able to meet our plan and the market is not growing, so, maybe, as a result of that we are number one. But the ultimate objective may not be like that because we have a volume target and, more importantly, how we are able to satisfy the customer. But internally we have been able to identify a few challenges and we are happy to be leading the scooter market and we have a long way to go in terms of motorcycles.

So internally that would be a focus for us, especially from the last couple of models we have launched starting with the Livo and Shine SP, CB Hornet 160R and this is one model line-up where we believe we have bridged the expectation, and the actual product from Honda, from the youth side, so it may not be the best one but has been up to expectations. But, yes, in the future you may expect a lot more starting with the Navi; it is a totally new attempt which has been led by Honda R&D India itself. So now we are very confident that we are on the right track to meet the aspiration of the youth and that our target is not just moving ahead with volumes. Volumes are necessary to run the factories but the Navi is the example of our passion.

BI:

Yes, we are serious in terms of strategy. Our long-term view of expanding this ‘Fun DNA’ cannot be expanded without superbikes as part of our plan. So big bikes are very much a part of that plan.

Especially for the last three years we added many bikes to the line-up. We did so because our capacity at our plants increased and we can’t just keep making scooters there. So we increased the number of bikes to utilise the production capacity of our plants. It makes sense from a business point of view.

KM: