Honda to roll out small car in India by 2010

New Delhi, Jan 9 (UNI) Japanese car maker Honda Motor's joint venture Honda Siel Car India (HSCI) today said its Rs 2,000 crore second plant would manufacture hatchbacks to be rolled out in the next two-three years in the country.

The company is looking at Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan as the location for its compact car plant.

''HSCI's second plant will cater to the Indian market alone and will be dedicated to our small car project which will take another two-three years from now. We are still in talks with the state authorities,'' HSCI President and CEO Masahiro Takedagawa told newspersons here.

He said the new plant is expected to have an annual production capacity of 2-2.5 lakh units and the mini-car would be ''an all-new car, which is currently under development.'' The car, to be launched in India initially, would be sold as a global model at a later stage in other countries also.

However, HSCI will consider Indian infrastructure and localisation plan while developing it in the country, Mr Takedagawa said while launching the company's new Accord model.

The new models 2.4 ivtec and 3.0 V6 are available at a price of Rs 15.62 lakh and Rs 17.32 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) respectively.

HSCI's existing plant at Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh is undergoing capacity expansion to touch 1,00,000 units per annum by year-end from its present production of 60,000 units per year.

UNI