First lot of 27 Honda Accord hybrids for India already sold out

Honda Cars India today launched its first hybrid sedan in India with the comeback of the ninth- generation Accord, a model which was discontinued in 2013 due to falling sales.

Now the sedan has been rolled out in a green avatar at an ex-showroom Delhi price of Rs 37 lakh, making it costlier by over Rs 600,000 to its Japanese rival, the Camry Hybrid from the Toyota Kirloskar Motors stable.

The Honda Accord Hybrid, which is imported as a CBU from Thailand, attracts customs duties of 60 percent that drives up its sticker price. It also does not benefit from the government’s FAME incentive scheme for electric vehicles and hybrids as it is not manufactured in India.

Globally, the ninth-generation Accord has sold 1.9 million units since its launch in 2012. In India, the Accord has sold 27,000 units since 2001.

Interestingly, the first lot of 27 Accord Hybrids are already sold out since the start of bookings from October 3. Jnaneswar Sen, senior VP (Sales and Marketing), Honda Cars India, told Autocar Professional on the sidelines of the launch that the sedan has reached dealerships and deliveries are slated to commence. The Accord Hybrid will be sold at select outlets in some key cities initially.

To begin with, in the first phase, 17 cities are being targeted for marketing the new hybrid Accord including Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. This stems from the limited consignments of the new sedan as the second lot of the hybrid sedan will reach India only next year, based on the bookings made after its launch. Deliveries of this lot of premium cars will happen next March, taking the wait to almost months months.

Overall, the Accord Hybrid is expected to sell a couple of hundred units in the first full year of sales. In comparison, the Toyota Camry Hybrid has sold 1,877 units from its launch in April 2015 to end- September 2016 drawing strength from its made-in-India image that enables it cash in on tax concessions for hybrids.

Honda gears up for festive demand

Honda is bullish about festive season sales in India and expects to rustle up 25 percent growth during October, especially with Dhanteras falling just before Diwali.

A notable shift in the carmaker’s product portfolio though has been a 75 percent movement in favour of petrol cars with the balance being diesel. Earlier, the diesel product range stood at around 40 percent.

Sen attributes it to the declining price differential between the two fuels, as well as improvement in  market sentiment. In addition, uncertainty looms large over diesel cars with the Supreme Court earlier banning 2.0-litre and above diesel engine cars from plying in the Delhi-NCR. The National Green Tribunal had also slapped a ban on 10-year-old diesel cars in the Delhi-NCR, taking many diesels off the roads.

However, Honda Cars India is not putting the plug on diesel in its new product line and Yoichiro Ueno, president and CEO, says a few more new products are in the offing during the remaining part of the fiscal. They will be on offer in both petrol and diesel options as diesel still forms an integral part of the Indian automotive market.

By the end of this fiscal, the carmaker also plan to expand its dealer network to 350, up from the current 316 outlets in 206 cities. In September 2016, Honda Cars India posted domestic sales of 15,034 units with exports of 405 units. The company sold 18,509 units in the domestic market, down 18.77 percent year on year. Cumulative April-September sales total 74,855, down 23 percent year on year.