Six gear cars

Archive for September 25th, 2009

Honda Jazz To Debut At The Tokyo Motor Show In October

Hondas first small car for India the Jazz will make its first public appearance at the Tokyo Motor show in October this year. Expected to be launched in a finely tuned form in India to take advantage of the taxation structure the product is most likely to come strapped with a diesel engine.

The new Honda Jazz is built to take on Swift and Getz. Masahiro Takedagawa chairman and CEO of Honda Siel Cars India has already implied that the companys small cars would be positioned to fit into the lower excise duty bracket. Small cars with a certain specification of engine capacity and length attract lower tax of 16 percent as against 24 percent for bigger cars as per the excise duty structure. The Jazz might come with a 1.5litre diesel engine in order to draw excise benefits. Honda is traditionally known for pricing its product on the higher side. But auto analysts say that the Japanese manufacturer will have to change its stand as it treads into the compact segment.

PriceWaterhouse partner Abdul Majeed said that the B and the B segment cars do not give high margin. But according to him to be able to make money in these segments any auto maker would have to price its products aggressively to catch big volumes.

The Jazz is likely to sport a price tag of Rs 4.65.6 lakh to draw big volumes in the segment given the competition from Getz and Swift. While Jazz will hit the Indian roads in 2009 another small car from the Honda stable which is designed for the Indian market will be launched in the country from that time on. This model would be launched one level lower in the Bsegment and would rival with the likes of Hyundai Santro Tata Indica and Maruti Wagon R.

The companys second Indian car plant which is coming up at Takapura in Rajasthan would manufacture the next generation Jazz. The initial capacity of plant would reach 60000 vehicles which will be more than tripled to 2 lakh units over time. Moreover Hondas second small car for India is also expected to be manufactured in the Takapura plant after its capacity is reinvented.

About Honda

Honda is well known for its diverse line up of quality automobiles and car parts under Honda such as Honda S2000 parts and Acura name plates and for its motorcycles ATVs power products marine engines and personal watercraft.

About the writer:  Rain Stockton is an engineer by profession. He is a motorsports fanatic especially F1 and NASCAR. He seldom fails to attend major car racing events. A frustrated race car driver he spends some of his free time working in one of the largest automotive shops in Indianapolis.