Honda's car sales in India just fell through the floor

Japanese carmaker Honda probably had one of its worst months in India with buyers shunning the brand like there is no tomorrow. 

According to the data provided by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), Honda sold 10,486 cars in the month of April 2016 as against 17,430 in March 2016, or an over 20% drop in sales on an year-on-year basis and a whopping 66.2% drop since March 2016.

The carmaker managed to sell 2,150 cars fewer cars than the April of 2015, its ambitious target to sell 3 lakh cars in the current fiscal now looks difficult. The data showed that since January this year, the company sold just over 58,000 cars. If extrapolated, the carmaker is likely to fall short of selling 2 lakh cars in the current calendar year. 

It's projection to achieve 3 lakh car sales is based on the fiscal year. 

According to SIAM, out of the seven models on sale from Honda's stable in India, four, namely; Brio, Jazz, Amaze and Mobilio made it to the top 10 worst performers with Brio and Jazz registering maximum sales decline across manufacturers. 

Honda's Brio posted a 90.82% month-on-month (MoM) decline in sales as company sold only 198 units in April 2016. Jazz, on the other hand, posted a 76.41% decline in sales as it managed to sell 869 units.

Amaze sales were a little better, at 2,639 units in April 2016, but nevertheless posted a 49.47% decline from March 2016. Honda managed to only sell 374 units of Mobilio in April 2016. The model posted a 38.69% decline in sales.

Honda Cars has blamed this decline in sales on the sudden shift in consumer preferences and the diesel ban.

Jnaneswar Sen, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Sales said, “The automobile industry is facing big challenge because of sudden shift in consumer preferences from Diesel to Petrol. Moreover the continuing ban on diesel has also impacted consumer sentiment. All these have impacted HCIL sales as there is a big mismatch in demand and availability of required variants. We are now taking corrective measures to address the situation.”

Sen however did not add what these corrective measure were.

Sen did not answer the question about how they would achieve their sales target but said, “despite the current challenges, HCIL is confident of positive growth in this fiscal.”