Buoyed by its success in India, Japanese automotive giant Honda Motor Co said on Wednesday it would double its production capacity in the country to 1,00,000 units by 2007, three years ahead of the original schedule.
"Honda has decided to undertake the plan to double automobile production capacity in India three years ahead of the original schedule," Honda president and CEO Takeo Fukui said in his mid-year speech in Tokyo.
"Annual automobile production capacity in India will reach 1,00,000 units around the end of 2007. Honda will consider further expansion to accommodate future growth in customer demand," he added.
Honda, which is the majority partner in the Indian joint venture Honda Siel Cars India, produces cars from its Greater Noida facility and has a current capacity of 50,000 units annually.
Fukui, however, did not divulge the investments for the proposed expansion in India. This is the second major expansion announcement by the Japanese giant in less than a year.
The company had last year increased its capacity to 50,000 units per annum from 30,000 with an additional investment of Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion).
Honda, which also holds a 26 per cent stake in two wheeler joint venture Hero Honda, will also be hiking its production capacity.
"Hero Honda in India is planning to increase capacity of its existing line (by 450,000 units) as well as build a new plant with annual production capacity of 450,000 units," he said.
As a result, the annual motorcycle production capacity in India will increase by an additional 9,00,000 units to a total of 5.2 million units by 2007, Fakui added.
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