Honda started sending batches of the new Jazz to dealerships across India from June. Jnaneswar Sen, senior VP- Marketing and Sales, Honda Cars India, told sister publication Autocar Professional, that it takes 10-11 days for the cars to be transported from its Tapukara plant in Rajasthan, where it is currently being manufactured, to far-flung cities like Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu and Imphal in the North East. So in a bid to make the Jazz available across the country, ready for customer viewing and tests, Honda is beefing up the car’s supply at dealerships to meet immediate demand following commercial rollout.
During the month of June, Honda sold 2,336 units of the Jazz to dealers and according to market demand, more cars will be dispatched. At present, it has 240 dealers across India and each will stock 5-10 units of the Jazz, prior to its launch on July 8. Subsequently, based on customer response to the car’s pricing, the carmaker will decide the future numbers and see the need to step-up the production capacity of the Jazz.
Currently, the company produces all its cars on a single assembly line that lends it greater flexibility to juggle the production schedules according to demand. Sen says that although the expansion at the Tapukara plant is to be completed by mid-2016, Honda does not necessarily have to cut the production of any other model to free capacity for the Jazz. “We can look at other options like working overtime in the short term or bringing about more efficiencies on the production line.”
In June, Honda sold 933 units of the Brio and 1,034 units of the Mobilio; they seem to be the only likely contenders to face the axe incase the Jazz attracts high demand and the company has to up the supply to narrow the gap.