Honda NAVI gets 900 bookings, likely to have a waiting of 2-3 months

About five weeks after the Honda NAVI, a crossover between a motorcycle and a scooter, was unveiled at the Auto Expo 2016, it has received 900 bookings both through the NAVI App and through HMSI dealerships.

The NAVI will reach retail outlets in the first week of April with deliveries slated to commence thereafter. The crossover is expected to muster a waiting period of 2-3 months as its volumes will be low initially with production to be scaled up based on market demand.

The NAVI, which has been pitched as a hybrid between a scooter and a motorcycle, will be produced at the company’s Tapukara plant in Rajasthan and will target 18-24 year-olds. The hybrid model will follow a town-wise distribution pattern with towns located closest to the manufacturing facility receiving the NAVI first. This strategy is being adopted due to faster transit time in transporting vehicles to dealerships located in towns like Gurgaon and Manesar in Haryana that are in the vicinity of Tapukara. Other towns will receive the NAVI subsequently.

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Based on demand, HMSI will explore producing the NAVI in the company’s new scooters only plant at Vithalpur in Gujarat that went on stream mid-February. All the Honda scooters are being manufactured at this fourth facility of the company that will reach a capacity of an annual 1.2 million units by mid-2016 and will supplement the scooter capacity at its other three facilities.

At the last count, HMSI had a backlog of 32,000 scooters. It leads this segment with a market share of 56 percent.

During April-February FY’16, the domestic scooter market grew 11.61 percent with sales of 45,81,640 units compared to a de-growth of 1.14 percent in the motorcycle segment.

HMSI posted sales of 3,917,961 units during April 2015-February 2016, growing 1.26 percent in the domestic market over the same period last year with scooters contributing 2,544,872 units and motorcycles bringing up the rear with 1,373,089 units. During February 2016, the company’s domestic sales stood at 351,424 units with a growth of 1.04 percent. Scooter sales accounted for 229,316 units (208,573 units) while bikes pitched in with 122,108 units (139,233 units) according to the latest SIAM data.