Amaze powers 72% sales jump for Honda in August

Burgeoning sales of the Honda Amaze have once again helped car maker Honda Cars India clock a healthy month-end sales figure.

Honda India's sales jumped 72 per cent in August, compared to the year-ago period, and nearly two-thirds of this came from the Honda Amaze. Out of the total sales of 9,469 units in August, the Amaze comprised 6,242 units.

Honda's sales have grown every month since the Amaze was launched in April this year, and the company posted a growth of 65 per cent during the April-July, compared to the year-ago period.

Only last week the company crossed the 30,000 sales figure for the Amaze, the fastest any Indian car maker has ever reached this milestone.

On average, Honda has been selling about 5,500 units every month since the launch in April.

Honda recently announced that it was planning to increase the production of the Amaze by starting a third shift at its Greater Noida plant from November, in order to cope up with the growing demand and reduce waiting time. The company hopes to reduce the waiting time to two-three months from the current four-five months. The backlog as of end-July was over 20,000 units.

Among the other models sold in August, the sedan City comprised 953, and the Brio 1,508 units. Honda also sold 62 units of the premium sedan Accord. Sales of the CR-V stood at 148 units. The company also exported a total of 556 units during August 2013.

Commenting on the numbers, Honda India senior vice-president (marketing and sales) Jnaneswar Sen said: "HCIL overall sales volume during August 2013 was quite robust. With the onset of festival season in West and South India, we have tried to maximize the production of Honda Amaze during August to be able to speed up the deliveries".