Slowdown or no slowdown, the demand for small cars will continue to be there. No wonder all auto majors are sticking to their plans for small cars. In fact, Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) has preponed the launch of Jazz in the country by six months. However, the company s first compact car in the country will now be rolled out from its Greater Noida facility as against the initial plans of manufacturing it at the upcoming plant in Rajasthan as HSCI has postponed the assembly operations there. The company has recently doubled the capacity of the Greater Noida plant from 50,000 units to 1,00,000 units and is currently doing 5,000 units a month. We were earlier planning to launch Jazz in the end of 2009 but now expecting that the financial conditions will improve in six months down the line and considering that the market is waiting for the vehicle ever since it was showcased at the auto expo, we have decided to now launch it in the summer of 2009, says Jnaneswar Sen, senior general manager (marketing), HSCI. The Greater Noida facility can be expanded beyond 1,00,000 units and we roll-out Jazz from here. While the number of units is still not decided, the company is currently manufacturing 60,000 units on an average of its existing models and Jazz would be over and above this depending on the market conditions, Sen added. According to Sen, people who are postponing their car purchase now due to high interest rates and unavailability of funds will eventually start buying once the cut in interest rates percolate to the auto sector. Compact cars constitute around 75% of the total passenger cars sold in the country. However, in the recent financial meltdown even this segment has witnessed a dip and this has resulted in an overall dip in sales in the country. According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, the total passenger car sales in the country dipped by 19.4% at 83,059 units in November as against 1,03,031 units during the same month last year. Even the compact car sales went down by 21.2% at 60,983 units last month as compared to 77,359 units in November last year. However, sales of HSCI went up by 15.14% in November at 5,095 units as against 4,425 in November last year, thanks to its recently launched Honda City.