Empire Rising : Honda

Honda's market share is rising by the day. The phenomenal growth is heading Honda towards market dominance. Time for the market to take notice ?

At the end of the 2007 calendar year – a year of shrinking market share for individual automakers, Honda registered record sales yet again, not only in the U.S. but also in over 85% of the European countries. The highest sales gain came from the Civic and CR-V – highlighting the popularity of Honda’s new models. The Civic is one of Honda’s most successful models and is now a brand name in itself. Today the Civic has become the class leader in every market that it has entered. In 2007, Civic registered a whooping 41% sales gain in Europe. Even its 1.8-litre Indian counterpart is churning out equally good numbers after being voted the ‘Car of the Year’ when it was launched. The CR-V also registered some phenomenal sales in Europe with a 77% and 72% gain over last year for the petrol and diesel variants respectively. The CR-V, even after attracting a 130% import duty outsells everything else in its segment, which is a feat in a cost conscious market like India. Honda is now mulling producing the CR-V in India, and it’s sure to be a runaway success if it’s manufactured here with the famous i-CTDI (to be replaced with the i-DTEC soon). What makes the i-DTEC special is the fact that it’s been declared legal in all the 50 states in the U.S., unlike other diesel engines from even Mercedes-Benz and BMW. This should further boost sales for the company in the International market. If the engine comes to India, it will be Honda’s first diesel variant in the country.

A mention of Toyota is almost indispensable wherever the name Honda appears. Honda and Toyota are two words often associated with the term ‘boring vehicles’ (sarcasm intended). These automobiles are often termed so because their robust and reliable engines go on and on clocking kilometres upon kilometres without any hassle. They don’t give the owner a good enough reason to sell them and upgrade to something else. Hence, Honda and Toyota today have become the most preferred brands across the globe. Both these giants entered the international markets together during the early 1950s. Since then it has been more of a ‘tortoise and rabbit race’ with Toyota being in the lead with its faster development, thanks to its healthy cash reserves. Honda on the other hand has epitomized the fact that ‘the one who keeps moving is the one who goes places’. Though their track record has been overshadowed by Toyota’s fast development, they have been moving positively. Honda has always launched precisely what the customer and the market needs. Hence their brochure has a lesser number of models to showcase instead of having an unnecessarily big product line up that takes a huge toll on investments but doesn’t reflect with equally good individual sales – something Toyota is famous for. Honda has never stressed much on platform sharing either. They believe that platform sharing doesn’t make production cheaper, instead makes products look cheap. The result is an array of reliable and technologically advanced engines across models that different markets around the world demand. Since their entry into our sub-continent about a decade back, Honda’s reliability, quality and design have created benchmarks in our market – all at a competitive price. Further, Honda hasn’t kept the Indian market deprived of any world class technologies either. The fuel efficient yet powerful i-VTEC engines are now at the heart of every Honda available in the country. The soon to be introduced i-DTEC diesel engines will see even healthier sales gain worldwide. With such committed technical innovation, steady and productive development and the reliability to match, Honda sure seems to be heading for greater success. At this rate, it won’t be long before the ‘boring tortoise’ matches pace with the helpless rabbit.