Honda Motor Co. (TSE:7267) plans to market its Acura line of luxury cars in Russia as early as 2008, targeting the rising wealthy class in big cities by bolstering its sales networks, company sources said Saturday.
The Japanese carmaker aims to sell 100,000 vehicles annually in Russia by 2010, including other Honda brands, up a factor of 6 from 2006.
Russia is one of the fastest growing markets in the world after China and India, and Honda and other top automakers around the globe are vying to expand sales there.
Honda aims to set up 10 dealerships in the country, putting one or two each in major cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg. Its local subsidiary will import and sell Acura models, including the RL luxury sedan – known as the Legend in Japan – the MDX sport utility vehicle and the TL midsize model.
Honda sells the Acura line in North America, China and Mexico, but not yet in Japan. It has decided to push back the planned debut here in 2008 by two years due to sluggish sales in the domestic market.
Currently, the Japanese automaker operates about 30 dealerships under the Honda name in Russia, and saw a 77 per cent jump in sales to 15,723 cars in 2006. In the January-June period of 2007, sales soared 120 per cent on the year to 13,616 vehicles.
