NEW DELHI, March 29 (PTI): Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India on Wednesday said it is setting up a separate unit at its Narsapura plant in Karnataka to roll out electric two-wheelers with first two models expected to hit the market in the next fiscal.
The company aims to touch 10 lakh electric vehicle production capacity at the plant annually by 2030.
“Electric mobility is growing in India and our aim is to build country’s best EV business structure. To fulfil our EV business requirements we are coming up with a dedicated factory in Narsapura,” Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) Managing Director, President and CEO Atsushi Ogata told reporters here.
Following the government’s direction of ‘make in India’ and the focus on localisation, main components including battery and other critical components like PCU will be produced in-house, he added.
The motor for the products will also be designed and manufactured locally, Ogata said.
“We aim to reach one million annual EV production at Narsapura by 2030,” he said.
HMSI plans to bring in a dedicated platform on which multiple EV models with fixed and swappable battery would be introduced.
Ogata said the company will utilise its existing sales network of around 6,000 touchpoints to come up with charging stations and for utilising battery swapping.
Additionally, HMSI plans to leverage the overall ecosystem, including battery swapping stations at petrol pumps, metro stations, and other locations, to provide convenient battery swapping solution for EV users.
Ogata noted that in line with Honda’s global direction – to increase electric vehicle and fuel cell vehicle unit sales ratio to 100 per cent by 2040, the company will continue to improve efficiency of ICE engines with introduction of flex fuel engine and follow government direction for alternate fuels while expanding electrification of models and eco system.
“With our EV roadmap, now in the execution phase, we are taking substantial steps towards creating exclusive infrastructure for manufacturing diverse range of electric vehicles. Parallelly, we are also investing in the development of EV technologies, charging infrastructure and aftersales services,” he said.
HMSI, which sold over 40 lakh two-wheelers in the domestic market this fiscal, has initiated Project Vidyut to introduce a new customer journey that caters to the demand of electrification age.
As part of this project, HMSI will launch two new electric two-wheelers in FY24. The first one, a mid-range electric vehicle and the second, a swappable battery type that utilises the Honda Mobile Power Pack.
Elaborating on the company’s business direction in the next fiscal, Ogata said the company will complete the transition of its existing model line-up to the latest on-board diagnostics regulation OBD2 and E20 (20 per cent ethanol-blended) fuel compliance in the first half of the next financial year.
He noted that HMSI will be expanding exports to 58 countries with 20 models in FY24.
The company currently exports 18 models to over 38 countries.
Ogata said the company also plans to soon start a new assembly line for scooters with an additional capacity of 6 lakh units at its Vithalapur plant in Gujarat.
The company plans to shift the Activa production from Narsapura plant to the Gujarat facility.
Ogata said the mass production of the electric two-wheeler models at the Narsapura plant would begin by March next year, followed by market launch of products.
HMSI currently has four plants in the country with an installed production capacity of around 52 lakh units per annum.
On new product launches, Ogata said the company aims to introduce a 160 cc bike and a 125 cc scooter in the next three months.
Besides, the company is considering to drive in a new 350 cc bike around the festive season this year.
On sales expectations in the next fiscal, HMSI Operating Officer (Sales and Marketing) Yogesh Mathur said the company expects to log in a lower double-digit growth.
