Honda’s ambitions for supremacy in the vast Indian motorcycle market have received a major boost, with the forthcoming addition of another production line to its third factory in that country.
This plant, at Narsapura in the southern state of Karnataka, opened in June 2013 and already manufactures 1.8 million bikes a year. Now Honda is investing £63m to lift output by a further 600,000 units annually and employ 1900 extra staff to operate the facility extension.
The new line will be operational by June 2016, coinciding with a fourth plant in India — which is currently under construction — coming on stream. Combined capacity of Honda’s quartet of Indian motorcycle and scooter factories will then reach 6.4 million units. Narsapura will also claim status as the brand’s largest bike assembly plant worldwide.
In 2014, total bike sales in India increased to approximately 16 million units, a year-on-year increase of about 10%. Honda sales growth outpaced that by a considerable degree, up by almost a third to around 4.2 million units.