Honda launches Dream Yuga; eyes 18% market share this year

Japanese two-wheeler major Honda, which rolled out its second mass segment motorcycle Dream Yuga here today, said it is planning to take the bike to overseas markets towards year-end. "We plan to start (Dream Yuga) exports either from November or December this year," Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) president and chief executive Keita Muramatsu told reporters here today after the launch of the bike. The company will look at the neighbouring markets such as Sri Lanka and Nepal for the Yuga exports to begin with, he said. Priced at Rs 48,028 (ex-showroom, Mumbai), the Dream Yuga is powered by a 110-cc engine and comes in five colours and three variants. The company, which sold 21.07 lakh motorcycles and scooters last fiscal, is aiming to sell 27.5 lakh units this fiscal, HMSI sales and marketing vice-president YS Guleria said. "We are also looking at pushing up our market share by three notches from the present 15 per cent with the launch of the Dream Yuga," he added. Sounding optimistic on growth despite choppy economic conditions, which have impacted domestic car sales to a significant extent in the current fiscal, Guleria said, "We have seen 50 per cent growth in the first two months of this fiscal. So, now with the dream Yuga in our product profile, we are quite confident of achieving the target." The company has currently two manufacturing facilities, at Manaesar in Haryana and Alwar in Rajasthan, with a combined capacity of 2.8 million scooters and bikes per annum. Its third plant at Narsapuram in Karnataka with a 1.2 million capacity is expected to be up and running from the second half of the next year.