Honda’s low-cost bike in the works, to challenge Hero HF Dawn

The most emerging brand in the India’s two-wheeler market, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) has already started eating-up Hero MotoCorp’s market share. As we earlier said, the company wants to become the biggest two wheeler manufacturer in India by 2020. To achieve this ambitious goal, Honda will launch four new products in the country every year.

In order to this Honda is looking at introducing a low-cost motorcycle for the Indian market, which will compete with Hero MotoCorp’s HF Dawn and Bajaj Platina. This step taken by the bike manufacturer could turn out to be a major force in driving the company towards more success. The proposed bike will fetch a price tag in the range of Rs 30,000 and Rs 40,000, that will be the cheapest in Honda’s line-up.

Currently, the cheapest offering from Honda is the 110-cc Honda Dream Yuga priced at Rs 44,657 (ex-showroom, Delhi). After the introduction of the Dream Yuga, the HMSI’s sales are more than doubled to 230,031 units in the category, its first serious mass offering. Honda has managed to sell 200,000 units of Dream Yuga since its launch in May 2012, which is a huge success.

The new model would be developed at Honda’s new developed technical centre at Manesar. As many as 200 engineers belonging to HMSI and Honda R&D India at the technical centre have been mandated to work closely with vendors to introduce products at competitive price points for the Indian market. This step indicates that India is a big destination of Honda’s global operations and they are warming up to dethrone the giant Hero MotoCorp.
 
(Note – The 100cc Honda H100 that was on-sale in 1988 in Britain images used as an illustration.)