Honda to target corporates, leasing cos for its new CRV

Ahmedabad, Nov 30 (UNI) With the launch of its third-generation Honda CRV, Honda Siel Cars India today said it is looking to enhance its sales to the corporate houses and fleet management companies.

''As on date, we sell about 300 cars to the corporate houses every month. Now we are in talks with more corporates to go in for the new CRV, which is in premium sports utility vehicle (SUV) segment,'' said Mr Arvind Bhatnagar, National head, Sales of the Japanese auto major in India at a press conference here.

He also said the company is also holding parleys with the fleet management companies ''as more and more corporates are taking the leasing route''.

Announcing the launch of CRV in Gujarat, he said the company hoped to sell at least 25 cars every month in the state, and at least ten in Ahmedabad.

The new Honda CRV is available in two variants-- automatic transmission which is priced at Rs 18.5 lakh (ex-showroom Ahmedabad) and the manual transmission variant, which is priced at Rs 17.90 lakh (ex-showroom Ahmedabad).

The car has been launched within two months of its global launch in India.

The company, he said, has a 28 per cent market share, planned to double its volumes to one lakh units. ''An amount of Rs 400 crores has been earmarked for the pupose,'' said Ms Anita Sharma, corporate communications head of the company.

On the launch of Honda's small car, Mr Bhatnagar said the company is studying the market and will come out with one, especially suited to the Indian roads. ''The problem of small car in India is the issue to price. Though Honda already has a small car that is sold across the USA as Fit and is known as Jazz in South east Asia, its price would not match the small car segment in India. We have to work out the cost factor,'' he added.

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