While the latest City avatar is unveiled today, the automaker will space out the other two in MPV and SUV categories so that it does not complicate things for its new offerings.
Honda Cars India is on a roll and today at noon, it will reveal what should be the most eagerly awaited successor to the best-selling Honda City. Having flown the flag for the Big H right since the Japanese giant’s first four-wheeled incursion in the late 1990s, the two generations of the City have dominated the senses in the mid-sized sedan segment of the Indian market and even without a diesel engine under the hood it was good enough to see off all competition – established (read that as Maruti and Hyundai predominantly) and new age (read that as VW and Skoda). That it is the standard by which all mid-sized sedans are measured in the land is no secret and the new third generation City is going to be even more potent when the wraps come off at noon in the national capital today.
Potent because it will of course have the traditional Honda brand strengths, keeping the firm’s ‘Man Maximum, Machine Minimum’ motto firmly at the forefront. Large cabin with very small compact exterior, svelte lines with contemporary looks, a tough structure built strong yet light in weight, top class engineering all across the vehicle and that just doesn’t mean the drivetrain but also the chassis, suspension and running gear. To this, of course, one must now also add a diesel engine, one final piece of the jigsaw that Honda never had for its best-seller.
The new third-generation City has been extensively engineered to deliver just as smooth and refined a drive experience for its diesel-engined avatar, given the character-traits that a diesel engine brings in its wake. The Earth Dreams Technology programme has further refined the 1.5-litre iDTEC four-cylinder engine for use in the newest avatar of the City and while an improved petrol engine is also right up there, the advent of a diesel option means a whole new wave of owners are going to flock to Honda once the car goes on sale in January 2014.
Speaking of 2014, the third generation City is just the precursor for many more offerings to follow, at around 6-8 month intervals from thereon. At Auto Expo 2014 in February, Honda’s first MPV for India will make its national debut. While in Tokyo last week for the bi-annual motor show, Takanobu Ito, CEO and president, Honda, informed Zee Media that there is major growth apparent in two automobile segments in India and his firm was actively working to address its absence in these two segments. The first of these he said was a vehicle with three-rows of seats and this sort of a small, compact, attractively priced MPV is what the Mobilio would be all about. Based on a the very same platform as the new Honda City, albeit slightly stretched and with both petrol and diesel engine options, the Mobilio should take on the likes of the Maruti-Suzuki Ertiga when it goes on sale sometime in June-July 2014.
The second segment which Ito referred to is the SUV segment but while Honda already has its CR-V in its India portfolio, the subtle message was that it needed an SUV which wasn’t priced so high as the CR-V but engineered without compromise and price positioned to take on the likes of the best selling Renault Duster -- and its Nissan Terrano cousin -- the Mahindra XUV500, et al.
This is the clarion call for not just consumers in India, but also overseas, and while Honda has unveiled its compact Urban SUV concept early in 2013, the wraps came off the full production version at Tokyo. Ito revealed the new Vezel (as the car would be known in Japan but would come with a different model name for overseas markets), which will feature both petrol and diesel engine versions plus a petrol-electric hybrid offering. Honda has this car pencilled in for an India launch, but it’s not going to be in 2014, given the fact that it wants to space new model introductions in a proper manner so as to not complicate matters for the new City and the Mobilio in their first year on the market. Expect the Vezel sometime by second quarter of 2015 is what we have deduced speaking to the Honda big wigs on the floor of the Tokyo Motor Show.
Sometimes you need to take a step back to move two or maybe three steps forward and that’s how Honda Cars India has performed in the course of the last two years. Having produced a gem of a small “large’ hatchback in the guise of the Jazz supermini, the music unfortunately was anything but melodious, thanks to the firm having outreached itself trying to seek too high a price for what it termed was its premium offering. With not one but three new models already in the pipeline and a whole new manufacturing programme in place to keep a lid on costs and not to repeat the Jazz cacophony, this is a brave new Honda as it embarks on not just rebuilding itself but also re-asserting its strengths in the Indian car bazaar.
THE BATTLELINES ARE GETTING REDRAWN
Based on a the very same platform as the new Honda City, albeit slightly stretched and with both petrol and diesel engine options, the Mobilio should take on the likes of the Maruti-Suzuki Ertiga when it goes on sale sometime in June-July 2014.
Honda also needed an SUV not priced so high as the CR-V but engineered without compromise and price positioned to take on the likes of the best selling Renault Duster and the Mahindra XUV500.
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