Honda Cars India which is facing a tough time due to unavailability of diesel cars, is now all set to launch its first ever diesel car in the country by early 2013. The said vehicle will be the Brio sedan based on the company’s flagship hatchback, the Brio’s platform. The similar car has been recently revealed at Honda Thailand’s official website ahead of its launch in November this year over there.
But only a single diesel car won’t help them much to increase the market share, so the company is considering to launch the diesel variants of generation next Honda City and the Jazz, besides a new MPV/SUV, and if speculations are to be believed Brio hatchback as well can come in a diesel variant. So the major focus of the company seems to be on entry level cars.
However the company hasn’t commented on the exact specifications of the engines to be used, we are expecting a 1.2-litre i-DTEC and a 1.5-litre i-DTEC that are downsized version of the company’s 1.6-litre i-DTEC, which currently powers European Civic and CR-V.
Speaking about the company’s future strategy in India, Honda Cars India president and MD, Hironori Kanayama said, "We have very ambitious plans for diesel in the coming years. The new engine will drive all new models lined up for the future, including the new small sedan next fiscal. We hope to have at least 3-4 diesel models in the next two years, we are thinking of a sequence and which model we will fit the engine for the launch."
Commenting the company’s diesel line-up for India, he further added, "India is a small car market with over 50% of volume coming from compact cars. So we will explore all options,(sub-4 meter) sedans and utility vehicles. We will be looking at optimisation of the existing platform to reduce development time and cost,"
Stay tuned for more updates on the same. Cheers!
Source: ET
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