July 26, 2013: Adding the second assembly line at its recently opened Narasapura plant in Karnataka, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter (HMSI) has rolled out the first batch of India’s largest selling scooter, the Activa.

Honda began producing the Activa scooters at its third plant recently as the speedy ramp up of production capacity is slated to give some relief to the company from demand pressures in the southern states. Earlier in June, the company had started producing the 110cc Dream Yuga commuter motorcycle on the first assembly line.

While the developments under phase 1 at the Karnataka plant will ensure Honda’s production capacity stands augmented to 12 lakh two-wheelers, the company will further hike the capacity later this year to take the plant’s annual capacity to 18 lakh units by March 2014. The third manufacturing unit thus stands to substantially boost Honda’s cumulative annual production capacity by 64 percent in a single financial year (2013-14), taking the same from 28 lakh units (FY2013) to 46 lakh units (FY2014).

Keita Muramatsu, president and CEO, HMSI, said “With the Activa’s proven legacy of reliability and advanced features, we have succeeded in selling 8 million units of the scooter till date. It’s a happy moment for us as our new plant in Karnataka has begun rolling out our most popular selling scooter Activa from the second line.”

AMIT PANDAY