December 2020’s sales performance was pretty decent for the Japanese carmaker, despite the discontinuation of the Civic and CR-V
Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL) has released its sales numbers for December 2020; the company managed to dispatch a total of 8,638 units last month. During last year’s December, the company had managed to retail 8,412 units, which translates to a year-on-year (YoY) growth of around 3 per cent.
In November 2020, the company had sold 9,990 units, which results in a sales decline of 13.53 per cent on a month-on-month basis. While YoY sales growth isn’t too much, monthly sales comparison shows a significant drop. Honda stood at the seventh position on the sales chart in December 2020. The Japanese carmaker had held the same position in November 2020 as well, although it stood one place higher back in December 2019.
Year-end sales slowdown was perhaps the biggest reason for the drop in sales performance. A lot of customers choose to wait the month out and buy their vehicle in January, as it would then be registered for the next year. This helps improve the resale value of a car by a small margin.
Honda recently shut down its 23-year-old plant in Greater Noida, and consequently, the production of the Civic and CR-V has ended in India. With this, Honda has effectively discontinued all its premium vehicles in our market. The remaining models in the brand’s lineup now consist of Amaze, Jazz, WR-V, and City (4th and 5th generation).
Honda also has plans to launch two new SUVs in the Indian market, to take advantage of the popularity of SUVs among buyers. One will be a sub-4-metre SUV, to take on the likes of Maruti Brezza, Ka Sonet, and Tata Nexon. This upcoming SUV is expected to replace the WR-V upon its launch, and will likely be available the same engine options as it.
The other one will be a Hyundai Creta/Kia Sonet rival, and speculations suggest that the next-generation HR-V will be brought in to fill this segment. The new-gen HR-V has been spied multiple times internationally, and is expected to be larger in dimensions than the current model. It will probably share its powertrain options with new-gen City.