Honda Cars India juggles demand for new Jazz with cuts in Mobilio and Amaze production

Honda Cars India (HCIL) is very upbeat about the response it is receiving to its latest kid on the block, the new third-generation Jazz that it launched on July 8 in Delhi. The carmaker has already sold 6,676 units of the Jazz during July, making it the highest-selling car for the company last month.

However, Honda Cars India is facing a capacity crunch at both its manufacturing facilities at Tapukara in Rajasthan and Greater Noida. Both factories, which are currently running two shifts, have reached 100 percent capacity. 

To manage the surge of demand for the new Jazz, Honda Cars India has begun juggling production at both its Greater Noida and Tapukara facilities. Autocar Professional had, on May 19, reported on the likelihood of the Brio hatchback or the Mobilio MPV production being juggled to accommodate the higher volumes of the new Jazz to be manufactured to leverage the flexibility of the assembly lines.

It is believed that the carmaker has begun cutting production of the Mobilio by 5-10 percent to make space for higher numbers of the new Jazz to be produced at the Tapukara plant in Rajasthan.

Though the Mobilio MPV is produced at the Greater Noida plant, any cut in its volumes is adjusted against the company’s other frontrunner model, the Amaze sedan that is manufactured at both the Tapukara and Greater Noida plants.

Thus, production numbers of the Amaze are spiked up at Greater Noida and juggled at Tapukara to make way for the new Jazz. This juggling is also one of the reasons why the sales of the Amaze are down in July to 4,589 units from 6,834 units earlier in June, it is learnt.

The new Jazz has a waiting period of a month and Jnaneswar Sen, senior vice- president – Marketing and Sales, told Autocar Professional that the sales for the petrol-engined Jazz stand at 60 percent with diesel contributing the balance 40 percent of the total sales of the premium hatchback. The CVT edition of the Jazz has raked in sales of 25 percent.

HCIL sold 18,606 units in July 2015 against 15,709 units in the corresponding month last year, posting a growth of 18 percent. Exports contributed 614 units during the month taking the total sales to 192,20 units.

Even before the car’s national launch, exports of the new Jazz had commenced to South Africa starting February 2015 with a total of 1,755 new Jazz hatchbacks shipped by then.