Why Honda is tapping local engineering talent in India to develop new vehicles

Honda Cars India Ltd is working to reduce the time and cost involved in developing new vehicles by leveraging India’s growing engineering capabilities and supplier ecosystem, according to Kunal Behl, vice president of Marketing & Sales at Honda Cars India.

“The biggest endeavour which Honda has is that how can we reduce the vehicle development time. In India, we have a lot of locally available engineering capabilities. We need to leverage that to bring down cost and time,” Behl told BT in an interview on the sidelines of the launch of the Honda Elevate facelift.

Though Behl did not name any partner, he said that these alliances are for various different technologies and to improve competitiveness of its products.

These comments come after several reports suggested that Honda has partnered with Tata Technologies Ltd to develop a new India-specific model.

Tata Technologies, in its earnings release for the first quarter of FY27, had said that a leading Japanese automotive OEM (original equipment manufacturer) has selected the company for a full vehicle engineering programme.

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Honda is eyeing a comeback in the world’s third-largest car market by volume after its market share slipped from 4% in FY20 to 1% in FY26.

Earlier in May, Honda President and Global CEO Toshihiro Mibe said the Japanese carmaker will proactively utilise external local development resources in India to introduce new models as fast as possible.

Honda has struggled to align its products with Indian customer preferences, Mibe said, adding that the company’s reliance on globally standardised specifications may not have suited local market requirements.

“We will proactively leverage external competitiveness and resources in areas that can increase our speed, flexibility and cost competitiveness, thereby strengthening the overall competitiveness of Honda,” Mibe had said.

Starting 2028, Honda plans to launch strategic models in India in two categories: vehicles under four metres in length, the largest volume segment in the country, and the mid-size category.

Honda is also evaluating multiple powertrain technologies, including petrol, hybrids, EVs and potentially flex-fuel vehicles, as it works towards Honda’s global carbon-neutrality goals.

“If the government policies are supportive, we have flex fuel models available in Brazil,” said Behl. “It depends on infrastructure readiness and policy support from the government. We are ready with the powertrain. When the economy of scale permits and it is the right time to introduce, we can easily introduce that,” he added.