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Honda throws in 600 million baht for bid bike production |
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Theerapat Jiwapong, sales director of A.P. Honda Co. Ltd., said the company has decided to seriously market high-displacement motorcycles in Thailand and will spend up to 600 million baht to build a big bike complex later this year. Apart from the showroom and service center, the complex will also include a riding course and an activity area for customers. The bid bike market is a niche market and does not have much growth potential, however Honda is willing to make the investment in order to strengthen its band image, he said. Theerapat also said that Honda is planning to expand its safe riding center from 13 to 20 this year. In January, family-type motorcycles were the most popular with 71,057 units sold, representing 50 per cent of the market. It is expected that total motorcycle sales will reach 1.6 million units this year, and Honda plans to sell 1.125 million units. The big bike market has become more interesting for manufacturers due to the implementation of JTEPA (Japan-Thai Economic Partnership Agreement) where import duty for motorcycles with engine sizes under 250cc will be completely lifted and duty for motorcycles with engine sizes larger than 250cc will be lowered by 10 per cent every year.
Presently there is a demand of 500 units per year for big bikes sold by
BMW, Triumph, Kawasaki, Harley-Davidson, Yamaha, as well as via grey
market importers. |
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ASEAN Autobiz April 2008 |
