Honda India, the Indian arm of the Japanese automobile manufacturer Honda is planning to make India its manufacturing hub for export to Africa and other overseas market. The company is planning to export car models such as the City sedan and others to South Africa from India. The South Africa is among the largest right hand wheel driven car market which is being catered to various players in the Indian auto market such as Maruti Suzuki, Toyota India, Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra.
Honda plans to make India an alternative manufacturing hub to Thailand which is currently producing the City sedan and other cars for the South African auto market as well as other foreign auto markets. The company exports some car models from India to neighboring nations such as Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
However, the total number of cars exported by the company is very low in comparison to market leaders such as the Hyundai Motor, Maruti Suzuki and Nissan Motors. The increase in export activities will also enable the company to optimally utilize its manufacturing capacity which is currently being underutilized due to the increase in demand for diesel cars. Honda doesn’t have any diesel powered cars in its India portfolio of car models.
