Honda CB350 localisation levels are high and the company intends to further increase them to improve its costs…
It was around 2017 when Honda let everybody know its plans to directly rival Royal Enfield with similar products. In March 2017, Noriaka Abe, President and CEO of Asian Honda Motor Co Ltd, said that they had already formed a team, which had people from Thailand and Japan who would work on this project. You can read his statement and other details here.
This simply means that the project (and the plan) to consider making a direct rival against Royal Enfields is at least three years old. Then there must have been the obvious considerations on whether to work on an existing platform or to build a new one from the scratch.
Bringing an existing platform from some other market would have been costlier for the company and hence it decided to make one from the scratch, specifically for the Indian market. Yadvinder Singh Guleria, Director, Honda India, informed that the production model, which is now known as H’NESS CB350, was developed in two years.
It is being produced at the company’s Manesar plant and Honda has begun with close to 90 percent localisation levels. It officially said that these levels may increase in the future.
Since the model was made predominantly for India, Honda intends to build volumes in our market first before considering exports to other similar markets.
Here is When Honda Will Announce Exact Price of Honda CB350
The company also has two more interesting products lined up for a showdown soon. At least one of them is expected to be based on the H’ness CB350 platform. More details here.
Honda CB350 – Summarized in 9 Pics
The CB350 is being sold only from BigWing dealerships and will NOT be available at the company’s conventional showrooms. Bookings have already commenced and deliveries will commence in the days to come.
