With over 12 showrooms and 50,000 sq ft of workshop area, Sundaram Honda has successfully achieved a significant milestone of selling one lakh cars, in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The dealer had reportedly sold 60,000 cars in just 6 years and 11 months, which led to a cumulative 1 lakh vehicles.

Currently involved in sales and service for leading brands such as Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen and Honda, Sundaram Motors has been one of them most successful car dealer and aftermarket parts distributor in Pan India.

Sundaram Honda was started in Chennai, in 1998, after which the company had extended its presence to Coimbatore, Madurai, Erode, Salem, Karur, Tirupur and to Secunderabad, Shaikpet, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh & Telangana states. The company also plans to add two touchpoints in 2019-2020 and three more by 2020/21.

“Being the largest retailer of Honda Cars in India for five years in a row and reaching the 1 lakh milestone, is a proud milestone for all of us at Sundaram Motors. The Honda City model has been the largest contributor to the company’s sales, followed by the compact family sedan Amaze and the premium hatchback Honda Jazz”, said Mr Sharath Vijayaraghavan, Executive Director, Sundaram Motors.

“We have been able to develop the business due to our shared values of transparency, high standards of integrity, respect for people, disciplined approach to business apart from Honda’s advanced design and technology, reliability, durability, fuel-efficiency and cost of ownership that characterize the Honda DNA”, he added.

Mr S. Ram, Joint Managing Director, TVS & Sons, an industry veteran, traced the journey of Sundaram Motors and its strong relationships with car manufacturers. Sundaram Motors began with its association with General Motors in 1929, which led to GM bring in global brands such as Chevrolet, Pontiac, Opel cars and Bedford CVs into India.

“Even after the exit of GM from India in 1954 due to import restrictions, TVS signed a dealership agreement with Premier Automobiles which lasted another 40 years,” Mr. Ram added.

The company had a total turnover of  Rs 1,800 crore in 2018/19, out of which, nearly Rs 840 crore were from selling Honda Cars through Sundaram Honda dealerships.

“India is very strong and powerful, however, there is a sense of uncertainty at the moment caused due to a combination of factors ranging from an economic slowdown to a tight-money situation and rising insurance costs”, asserted Mr Sharath.

When asked about the possibilities of electric cars, Mr Sharath said that the country is not ready yet. However, he said that the move towards hybrid vehicles would be more likely.