Delhi, May 25 : Honda is all set to enter the bigger league in India.The company has already announced a significant capacity expansion and is now driving the new Civic into the Indian market.

Honda has managed to hold on to the market share with its City and Accord despite stiff competition. By the end of 2007 Honda's capacity of 100,000 units will be used to accommodate the all-new Civic, which will be placed between the City and Accord and a possible new model.

The Honda Civic is expected in two variants and the price range is likely to be between Rs 10.5 and 12.5 lakh. The car would also feature a 1.8 litre 140 bhp engine.

Honda has set itself a minimum sales target of 1000 Civics a month; the segment leader sells 950 units at best. The Civic would hit the market with a high 70 per cent localisation, which will be scaled up further.

But as Honda changes gears in India, it has also had to alter its plans since the government policy on excise changed after the budget. Honda says its respects government policy on excise and at present is concentrating on Civic.

After all the speculation about Toyota's small car, it seems that Honda might beat Toyota by bringing in a compact car first.