Honda Noida Plant Production Ceased, Operations Moved To Rajasthan

Honda Greater Noida Plant Production — The corporate and R&D teams will continue to function at Noida

Honda has ceased production of cars at its Greater Noida plant in Uttar Pradesh and will shift operations to its Tapukara facility in Rajasthan.

Operations at the facility, which has been functioning for over 2 decades and produced cars such as the City, Civic and CR-V, will be wrapped up this month. Currently, no cars are being produced there.

All production-related operations are being shifted to the Tapukara factory in Rajasthan that has a total capacity of 1.8 lakh units. The Noida facility could produce 1.2 lakh units a year.

However, this move is not unprecedented. Back in October 2019, news broke that Honda Noida plant production will not continue and that the firm is looking to make the facility into a R&D and CKD operations hub (read article here).

Furthermore, the carmaker floated a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) for its permanent employees (manufacturing) at the Noida factory, effective from 28th January, 2020.

While the facility employed about 2000 in the manufacturing department, there are about 1000 permanent employees now, most of whom are said to have opted for VRS.

Those who remain will be transferred to the Tapukara plant. However, Honda will continue to run its corporate office and R&D department from the Noida facility.

This move comes as the carmaker is trying to optimise production based on its sales volume. Honda has been facing a tough time in India of late, and currently has a market share of about 3 percent, while it had more than double that number only 5 years ago.