Honda has inaugurated its second plant in India at Tapukara, Rajasthan. The manufacturing facility, built on a 450 acre site, currently has an installed capacity of 120,000 units per annum with scope for further expansion in the future. Like Honda’s factory at Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh which also has production capacity of 120,00 cars per annum, the new plant is a fully integrated manufacturing plant and houses functions like forging, weld shop, paint shop, plastic moulding, engine assembly, frame assembly and engine testing facility. These functions are in addition to the press shop and powertrain unit Honda has been operating at the same premises since 2008.
At present, only the Amaze will be manufactured here in a single shift. The additional production capacity will help ease some load at the Greater Noida plant that runs a three shift production run for the Amaze. Honda officials have stated that waiting period for the Amaze has stabilized, with a maximum of one month wait on certain variants. Honda has stated, the Tapukara plant is a flexible facility and can be used to manufacture any of its other products. Interestingly, the upcoming Mobilio MPV that is likely to be launched in July will not be produced at the Tapukara plant, atleast not in the initial phase of production.
New plant apart, Honda’s current focus is on smoothening out the demand-supply gap for the new Honda City is manufactured at the Greater Noida plant. Honda had started production of the City diesel a month prior to the City petrol, and the promise of quicker delivery for the diesel variants forced many buyers to opt for the diesel engine version. The result was a 70-30 split in favour of the diesel City which has lead to a sizeable delivery backlog. Honda forecasts the petrol City to gain popularity as production normalises.