Just days after reports about Honda Cars India shutting down the production unit at its Greater Noida plant emerged, the Japanese carmaker has now released an official statement confirming the news. Honda has now shifted its entire production unit to the company's other facility in Tapukara, Rajasthan. The carmaker has said that it has realigned its production operations "to maintain sustainability by leveraging production and supply chain efficiencies." To that effect, from this month, the manufacturing operations for vehicles and components will happen at the Tapukara plant for all domestic sales and exports, with immediate effect.
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Honda Cars India has said that it has realigned its production operations to maintain sustainability
Commenting on the development, Gaku Nakanishi, President & CEO, Honda Cars India said, "Despite an uptick in sales in the last three months, the current market conditions remain unpredictable for the industry at large. The impact of COVID-19 has pressed us to strengthen our constitution and to achieve the same, HCIL has decided to consolidate its manufacturing operations by making the Tapukara plant a unified manufacturing base. HCIL continues to believe in the resilience of the Indian economy and hope for a quicker recovery of the market. India is extremely important market in Honda's global strategy and HCIL is committed to bring its latest and advanced technology models including electrified vehicles in future."
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In this transition process, Honda has also stopped the production of the Civic and CR-V in India, discontinuing both models
Until last month, the Greater Noida plant produced models like the Honda City sedan, CR-V SUV, and the Civic sedan. While the transition will see the production of the City move entirely to the Tapukara unit, in the process, the company has also stopped the production of its flagship models, the Civic sedan and CR-V SUV. Talking about the two models, a Honda Cars India spokesperson told carandbike, "Due to the stoppage of production in Greater Noida Unit, there will be no production of CR-V and Civic as both these models cannot be made in Tapukara plant which was conceived as an integrated plant with high efficiency to produce small and mid-size cars."
The Greater Noida plant was Honda Cars India's first manufacturing facility in India
The Greater Noida plant was the Japanese carmaker's first manufacturing facility in India, which began operations in 1997. The initial capacity of the plant was 30,000 unit per year, which was later increased to 50,000 cars on a two-shift basis. By 2008, the company increased its manufacturing capacity to 100,000 units annually, which remained unchanged to date. Compared to the Greater Noida facility, the Tapukara plant has an annual capacity of 180,000 units.
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Reportedly, most of Honda's permanent employees in the manufacturing department, at the Great Noida facility, have opted for the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) while others have been transferred to the Tapukara plant. However, Honda has confirmed that all Head Office functions, India R&D Centre and spare parts operations (including warehouse) for automobile, two-wheeler and power product business will continue to operate from Greater Noida.
