Honda begins production of first small car in China

Guangzhou Honda Automobile Co., Ltd., Honda's automobile production and sales joint venture in China, held a ceremony this week to launch production of its Fit Saloon for the Chinese market.

The Fit Saloon will go on sale in China on September 28 at a price of 99,800 yuan (approximately AUD$18,000) for the 5-speed manual transmission model – with a sales target of 16,000 units for this calendar year.

The Fit Saloon is based on the City model produced in Thailand and sold in Asia as the Fit Aria, modified to suit Chinese road and usage conditions. In addition to high levels of quality, reliability and safety, the Fit Saloon offers excellent driving performance, outstanding comfort and functionality, and advanced styling. The Fit Saloon also offers exceptional fuel economy and meets the Euro 3 standard for exhaust emissions.

The small car market (1.0-1.5 litre) in China is growing rapidly with year-to-date sales exceeding 170,000 units at the end of August 2003, more than twice the volume (219%) of to the same period in 2002. Guangzhou Honda expects to increase sales in China by entering the small car market with the introduction of the Fit Saloon.

Parts such as the SRS airbag system and brake system are sourced locally, helping increase local content for the Fit Saloon to approximately 80%.

Beginning operations in March 1999 with production of the Accord, Guangzhou Honda added Odyssey production in April 2002. To accommodate production of this third model, the annual production capacity of Guangzhou Honda will be doubled from the current 120,000 units to 240,000 units by spring 2004.

Guangzhou Honda produced approximately 59,000 units in 2002, and cumulative production and sales through August 2003 exceeded 220,000 units (since production began in March 1999). For 2003, production is expected to increase to 117,000 units.

Guangzhou Honda plans to expand the size of its dealer network from the current 160 dealers to 200 dealers by the end of 2003. It was the first sales and service dealer network to be established by an automaker in China – and integrates sales, service, service parts supply and customer feedback.

2003-09-19 Please quote Autoindex.org if You use this news article