KUALA LUMPUR: Honda Malaysia Sdn Bhd is targeting sales of 100,000 units this year, an 8% increase from 91,830 units in 2016, to maintain its market leadership position.
Its managing director and CEO Katsuto Hayashi said despite most analysts predicting a cautious view, it believes 2017 will have a positive outlook in the automotive industry and market sentiment will gradually improve in the region. It forecast total industry volume (TIV) of 600,000 units for 2017.
In 2016, the carmaker achieved a 15.8% market share in Malaysia, the second highest country market share in Honda automobile operations globally, after Indonesia.
“Locally, this percentage maintained Honda at its number one position in the non-national segment for two years consecutively. It also propelled the company to second position in the overall TIV for the first time in Malaysia,” Hayashi said at the Honda Media Gathering.
He said Honda Malaysia is looking at introducing four new models this year. The all-new BR-V was introduced in early January this year. Honda Malaysia began collecting bookings on Feb 1, 2017 for the New City. Hayashi said complementing the focus on class leading value for money products is the emphasis on customer satisfaction.
Honda Malaysia has sold over 350,000 units over the past five years.
“As the company grows, we plan to continue to upgrade every customer touch point from facility to infrastructure,” said Hayashi.
