Report: Honda not planning a Tata Nano rival for India

Tata Nano Alternatives | Mark Spencer | November 15, 2009 at 4:13 PM

Honda Motor Co. says that it still faces “tough times” in many traditional markets and so it will focus on surging markets in China and India. However, Honda will not be creating an ultra low-cost car to compete with Tata Motor’s Nano.

Earlier this week, Chief executive Takanobu Ito said that the automaker was considering a new compact car for Asian markets and more specifically for India, where Honda’s first small car, the Jazz hatchback, was launched earlier this year. Ito spoke to reporters in the Indian capital and expressed that with regards to its own business plans, Honda is not expecting an immediate recovery in the traditional markets. In fact, General Motors Co. appears to also embrace this trend since it said earlier this week that its China vehicle sales in October more than doubled from a year earlier.. GM has had a string of monthly sales records since the start of 2009 due to Beijing’s stimulus policies.

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