Honda targeting 76,000 sales
Having confirmed the upcoming launch of its all-new City to happen in March, Honda Malaysia has further announced an ambitious sales target of 76,000 cars for 2014, which should secure the company’s position as the second best-selling non-national brand in the country after Toyota.
Speaking to the media yesterday, Honda Malaysia President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) En Roslan Abdullah said, “The 2013 sales of 51,550 units units was the highest ever achieved by Honda in Malaysia. The gap between Honda and the market leader in the non-national passenger segment stood at 1.7% and this is a significant increase compared to 7.1% in the previous year.”
It is worth noting that unlike its two closest rivals, Toyota and Nissan, Honda does not have commercial vehicles of any kind in its product line-up. As such, it is impressive to note that Honda’s passenger car-only line-up actually matched Nissan’s total volume and will run Toyota’s numbers close if sales of the Hilux and Hiace are taken out of the equation.
Going into 2014, Honda is looking to strengthen its position by focusing on three core areas, namely the introduction of new models with competitive value for money, expansion of local production capacity, and expansion of dealer network. The company is seeking to build on the strong momentum it generated in 2013 with launches of the Odyssey, Accord, Jazz CKD, and CR-V.
“We have laid the foundations to strengthen the company’s operations in order to elevate our business to the next level in terms of sales volume, market presence and branding. With the completion of the No.2 Line at our factory and new main models including CKD hybrid to be introduced this year, we believe that our strategies are in line with the current market situation where more people are longing for affordable, environment friendly and good value for money vehicles,” said Honda Malaysia MD and CEO, Mr Yoichiro Ueno.
The new City’s launch in March will pave the way for a further four model launches to take place in the latter parts of this year. The new launches will consist of full model changes, facelifts, and local assembly of currently imported hybrid variants. This rapid expansion of the CKD portfolio is supported by the newly-opened No.2 Line at Pegoh, which will bring Honda Malaysia’s local production capacity to 100,000 units per annum.
To support the anticipated growth of Honda’s sales volume, Mr. Ueno added, “By the end of this year, we will expand our dealership network to 80 dealers and 14 Body & Paint Centers. Furthermore, we will be increasing the number of sales advisors and service technicians who will be fully trained to ensure service quality to our customers. This expansion will see Honda represented in major cities and primary market areas around Malaysia.”
