ANALYSIS: Honda's Bold Runabout Vehicle (BR-V) - the Next Big Thing? - just-auto.com (registration)
Underlining Honda 's increasingly smart move towards investing where populations and incomes are rising in Asia, the company has just revealed a prototype of a new model, the BR-V . The little seven-seater will be shown to the public for the... Production at Karawang 2, a manufacturing plant some 70km east of the Indonesian capital run by PT Honda Prospect Motor (HPM), is due to commence in January. But that will be only the first part of Honda's strategy for the car. This little crossover shares much with the Brio, Brio Satya, Amaze and Mobilio small cars. Like the Brio hatchback, Satya sedan and Mobilio minivan, the BR-V uses a shorter, lower cost version of the third generation Fit/Jazz architecture. At the moment, the numbers are not enormous, but Honda sees the medium and long term growth potential for the Indian, Thai and Indonesian markets. Karawang 2, for example, was completed in early 2014 and the Brio Satya, Mobilio and other mainstream models are made there. The additional plant lifted Honda's Indonesian production capacity to 180,000 units a year. HMIL makes models using the BR-V's architecture at both of its production plants. Source: www.just-auto.com
