New Jazz to have over 90 per cent local components, says Honda Car India CEO

The new generation Honda Jazz slated to be launched in July 2015 will have more than 90 per cent local components, up from 70 per cent in the earlier edition, said Katsushi Inoue, the newly-appointed President and CEO of Honda Car India Limited (HCIL).

In his first interaction with the media after his appointment, Inoue said the company plans to invest Rs 380 crore on capacity expansion of its Tapukara plant in Rajasthan in 2015-16.

The plant's present capacity to manufacture 1.2 lakh units a year will be increased to 1.8 lakh cars by the middle of next year. The company has another manufacturing unit in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

The company also plans to increase its presence from 232 outlets in 152 cities to 300 outlets in 200 cities in the current financial year.

"We want to be the most loved car brand in India. Our efforts would be to further enhance the quality of our cars and services. We want to move from customer satisfaction to customer delight," said Inoue.

Honda Car India sold 1,89,062 units in 2014/15, a jump of 41 per cent from 1,34,339 units sold in 2013-14. The company's annual export volume grew 66 per cent during 2014-15 with 8,398 units as compared to 5,054 units in 2013-14, according to data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufactures (SIAM).

India is Honda Motors' fourth-largest market after the US, China and Japan.