As Honda Cars India Ltd prepares to unveil pricing details of its new 4th generation Honda City and market is abuzz with rumours of new launches of Honda India planned for later this year, the second dealership for Honda vehicles is getting ready for opening in Coimbatore next month.
The new dealer is confident of expanding the demand for Honda vehicles in the textile city and grabbing nearly 50 per cent market share for Honda cars in Coimbatore market.
Speaking to Business Line here today, K.S. Sasikumar, CEO, Ramani Automobiles Private Ltd, Coimbatore, said that in the Coimbatore market, nearly 2,300 cars are sold every month.
This consisted of all models and all brands, including the high end brands. Since the launch of diesel Amaze, the volume of Honda cars sold in Coimbatore, for which there is a dealer already in the city, has doubled. He expected Honda to grab nearly 8-10 per cent of the car market in the city once the new dealership by his company opens on Avinashi road during next month.
He said during 2013 calendar year, the car market in Coimbatore did not show any major growth but it did not decelerate either, maintaining more or less the same quantity as in the previous year. However, during this year, he expected the car market here to register a 3-5 per cent growth since a slew of new launches are planned by many players. Once the second dealership of Honda opens, he expected Honda to sell 180-200 cars a month in Coimbatore, of which he was hopeful of grabbing 50 per cent of the sales.
Explaining the investment planned by the Ramani group, which already owns separate dealerships for Volkswagen and Nissan vehicles in the city, he said the company’s showroom was coming up on the upmarket Avinashi road in Peelamedu. It is establishing a service centre near the ESI hospital in Singanallur. While the investment in infrastructure would be about Rs 5- Rs 6 crore, the working capital investment would be about Rs 10 crore. The service centre has capacity to attend to 60-70 cars a day.
Asked whether the Coimbatore market was elastic enough for a second dealership for a premium brand like Honda, Sasikumar pointed out that Honda was already present at different price points with its models starting from Brio at the lower end to its SUV CR-V at the higher end. With the launch of its diesel Amaze and the to-be launched diesel variant of its popular City, the customers are spoilt for choice. He was confident of the numbers because even without a diesel variant, Honda City had “the highest market share in the mid-size sedan”. With Amaze and City in diesel too, reaching the desired sales volume will not be difficult.
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