Honda Motor Co. said Thursday it will more than double its annual output capacity for motorcycles in India to 4 million units by 2013 to meet rapidly growing demand in the emerging market.
Honda, which runs a manufacturing plant with an annual capacity of 1.6 million units in the state of Haryana, is building a second plant in the state of Rajasthan, about 90 km from New Delhi, with the capacity to produce 600,000 motorcycles annually. The second plant will begin operations in July.
Honda plans to further enhance capacity at the second plant to an annual 1.2 million units next March.
Honda also plans to build a third motorcycle plant in the state of Karnataka in southern India in the first half of 2013 that will have an annual production capacity of 1.2 million units, raising total output capacity in India to 4 million units, the automaker said.
India is the world's second-largest motorcycle market after China, and sales there hit 11.32 million units in 2010.