India’s Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) has held back its decision on when to start production at the new line at Gujarat plant owing to low demand due to COVID-19, according to company officials quoted in media reports.
HMSI has completed the construction of the new line – called the third line — in their Gujarat factory. Honda’s new line was to add 600,000 units annually to its capacity, taking the total to 1.2mn units per annum.
The company stated that the current capacity and the existing lines are enough to meet the present demand and the projected demand for the next two years. Consequently, the company could take two to three years to start production on this new line.
HMSI has four manufacturing plants in India — Manesar in Haryana, Tapukara in Rajasthan, Narsapura in Karnataka and Vithalpur in Gujarat. The total production capacity of HMSI stands at 6.4mn units annually.