Honda India, the wholly owned subsidiary of the Japanese automobile manufacturer Honda is planning to launch the Honda Freed crossover utility vehicle in the Indian car market to compete with Toyota Innova utility vehicle. The new utility is expected to be launched by the year 2016.
The Japanese automaker is expected to launch the Freed for the ASEAN markets in 2014 and may bring the same to the Indian market to take on the Innova by the Japanese automaker Toyota. According to a company spokesperson, the automaker is studying the multi-purpose vehicle segment in India and has plans to launch the Honda Mobilio in India in the year 2014. He added that the Freed car model may be launched by the year 2015-16.
Industry analysts state that since the Toyota Innova has been the leader in its segment in India and so far has no direct competition, it would be interesting to see what strategy Honda plans to implement in order to compete with an established car product.