Honda confident of hitting target

Honda Cars Philippines Inc. (HCPI) will try its best to hold on to the No. 2 spot in overall automotive sales this year, according to Takashi Sekiguchi, president and general manager of HCPI.

During last Friday’s presentation of Honda’s 2006 Jazz model, Sekiguchi expressed confidence that HCPI would likely hit its 20 percent sales growth target this year, selling 12,000 units.

Last year, HCPI sold a total of 9,797 units.

As of end-May this year, Sekiguchi reported, HCPI has already sold 5,016 units, just 1,000 units short of its half year target.

Thus, for June alone, HCPI is hoping to sell at least 1,000 units led by its current bestseller the Civic.

However, Honda is also banking on increasing its market share of the economical and lifestyle segment market with its fuel efficient and trendy 2006 hatchback Jazz model.

The Jazz now comes in two variants, the 1.5V and 1.3S.

It is competitively priced at P650,000 for the 1.3S manual transmission and up to P772,000 for the 1.5V CVT (automatic) model.

However, Sekiguchi acknowledged that it is still not in a strong position to dislodge market leader Toyota this year.

Honda has been getting its act together and regain market share which it has lost in the past couple of years.

According to HCPI deputy head of marketing division Arnel Doria, Honda has undergone an organizational, marketing and production retraining to take advantage of an expected automotive industry upturn this year.

Honda is projecting monthly sales of 160 units for the 2006 Jazz, maintaining its previous level.

The Jazz has sold over 3,100 units since its was introduced.

HCPI, Doria said, has retrained its whole marketing and dealer network to better promote the car company’s products.

The Jazz is imported while the Civic is assembled locally together with the City and the Honda C-RV.

HCPI also imports the luxury sedan Accord.

Sekiguchi had previously said that HCPI intends to focus on rebuilding and strengthening Honda’s existing car models, specifically the Civic and CRV.

Likewise, Honda will also develop the still unappreciated five-door hatchback model.

Sekiguchi noted that the Philippine market equates value with size and thus tends to favor the much larger American vehicles which, however, are not fuel efficient.