File pic of HCIL's Tapukara plant

Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. (HMSI), Honda's motorcycle production and sales subsidiary in India, and Honda Cars India Limited (HCIL), Honda's automobile production and sales subsidiary in India, have each decided to expand annual production capacity in line with the expected continued future growth of the Indian market. HMSI will expand its 3rd motorcycle production plant, and HCIL will expand its 2nd automobile production plant, both currently under operation.

HMSI motorcycle expansion
HMSI's 3rd motorcycle production plant, located in the Narsapura area in the state of Karnataka in the southern part of India, became operational in June 2013, with annual production capacity of 1.8 million units.

HMSI will newly invest approximately 5.85 billion rupee and build another production line within the existing site. The new production line is scheduled to become operational in 2016 and expand annual production capacity by 600,000 units, increasing the plant's total annual production capacity to 2.4 million units. In order to accommodate this capacity expansion, HMSI is planning to increase the number of associates by approximately 1,900.

In 2014, industry-wide motorcycle sales in India increased approximately to 16 million units, a year-on-year increase of approximately 10%. In the same year, Honda motorcycle sales increased to approximately 4.2 million units, a year-on-year increase of approximately 30%.

Combined with the additional capacity of the 4th plant which is scheduled to become operational in the first half of 2016, this expansion of the 3rd plant will increase HMSI's overall annual production capacity to 6.4 million units. With this capacity expansion, which will make HMSI Honda's largest motorcycle assembly plant in the world, HMSI will be well prepared to continue serving the motorcycle market in India where further growth is expected primarily with scooter products.

(Continued on the next page)