Honda starts building third two-wheeler production plant

Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI), Honda’s wholly-owned two-wheeler production and sales subsidiary in India, has laid the foundation stone of its upcoming third two-wheeler production plant to meet increasing demand in the rapidly growing two-wheeler market in India.

Spread across 350,000 square meters, the third plant is situated at Narsapura Industrial Area of Karnataka, which is approximately 52km from Bangalore, and is scheduled to become operational in first half of 2013 with annual production capacity of 1.2 million units. The new plant will employ approximately 3,000 associates at initial stage of full capacity and will entail total investment of approximately Rs 1000 crore.

Utilising production technologies refined at the Manesar and Tapukara plants as a starting point, HMSI says it will strive to improve process ergonomics and employ more advanced automation and other measures to reduce the burden on associates at the third plant. It will also be more environmentally responsible plant by proactively reducing energy consumption during production and by employing various environmental measures such as water recycling.

This capacity expansion plan will increase HMSI’s total annual production capacity to 4 million units, including 1.6 million units at the first plant at Manesar (Haryana), 1.2 million units at the second plant at Tapukara (Rajasthan) and 1.2 million units at the third plant planned at Bengaluru, preparing HMSI for further and rapid growth of the market.

India is the world’s second largest motorcycle market after China. Industry-wide two-wheeler sales in India reached 11.32 million units in 2010 (up 30% compared to 2009). HMSI was established as a wholly owned motorcycle production & sales subsidiary of Honda in 1999 and began production in 2001. HMSI’s sales have grown steadily with 2010 sales approximating 1.526 million units (up 40% from 2009) achieving a record high for ten consecutive years.