Honda Mobilio gets priority over Brio

The Honda Mobilio is off to an excellent start. Launched on July 23, the Mobilio has already raked in 3,365 unit sales in its first month. Honda began production a few weeks in advance anticipating high demand for the seven-seater. The Mobilio is built at the Greater Noida plant where Honda manufactures the Brio and the City as well. Since the facility is already running at full capacity, Honda halted production of the Brio to produce enough units of the Mobilio. Only 74 units of the Brio were sold in July as a result, mostly of stocks built in the previous month.

Honda has two manufacturing plants in India, the first one in Grater Noida, Uttar Pradesh and the second in Tapukara, Rajasthan. The Tapukara plant only began production in February where the Amaze rolls off the assembly line at present. Both plants run flexible assembly lines where any car in the Honda line-up can be produced on the same line. At the UP plant, the hot-selling City’s production cannot be curtailed as there is always more demand than supply. In the Brio’s case though, it’s not the same. Honda knows that the Brio is not going to give it the numbers that other cars in this line-up are getting. There is almost no marketing spends on the hatchback and the Brio is now selling in ‘auto-pilot’ mode. 

There’s no worried heads at Honda India though. Due to the flexible assembly lines, the plant is never underutilized and since the Brio shares a majority of its components with the Amaze and the Mobilio, there are no huge stockpiles of components lying dormant. It’s a curious case really about a car that isn’t selling well and doesn’t need to too. 

The Brio averages around 1,400 units every month. Not too bad a number in a country that has a sea of hatchbacks on offer. But more such production halts could reduce this number further. Should a revival be on the cards or should the Brio be left to exist on the fringes is a question Honda needs to be finding an answer to.