Why City & Amaze can no longer pull the cart for Honda?

The comforting sales numbers in September should have put a broad smile on Rajesh Goel’s face. But the senior vice-president and director, marketing and sales at Honda Cars India, is cautiously optimistic even after the 9.65% year-on-year growth. “Our focus is to not only push cars to dealers, but also ensure that retail [sales] happen. So, we are closely monitoring both dispatches and retails,” he says.

Perhaps, some hard numbers are playing in the minds of all top officials of Honda Cars India.

The passenger-vehicle industry in India has seen a de-growth of 34% in April- September of FY21. But for Honda, the cut has been deeper. The company’s domestic sales have seen a decline of 59.15% in FY21 (till September), and 44% in FY20. With a puny 2.83% market share, Honda has slipped to the seventh position in the domestic passenger-vehicle sales pecking order in FY21 (April-September) from the sixth rank in FY20. It was overtaken by Kia Motors and Renault India. In the just-released October numbers, Honda posted sales of 10,836 units, up 8.3% over the same month last fiscal.

The full article was originally published on ET Prime.