Diesel Hondas to hit Indian blacktop soon?

With the past year riddled with unavoidable obstacles, Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) Ltd is now gearing up for a new innings in 2012. With a country-wide quantum shift of demand from petrol cars to diesel cars, Honda too may launch diesel variants soon.

The company had earlier shown a 1.6 litre diesel-engine Civic for the European market, which is due to be production-ready soon. Could that mean a diesel Honda for India in the not-too-distant future?

Speaking to DNA, HSCI director, marketing, Seki Inaba said Honda is yet to take a call on what diesel engine will be launched here. The declaration will come “sooner rather than later”, he assured.

“The regulations, norms and customer demands of the Indian market vary from those in Europe. So, before a diesel engine is launched here, we have to ensure that it meets our standards as well the customers’ demands here,” Inaba said. He was in the city to unveil two car models on Friday.

Honda had suffered major setbacks twice in 2011, as Japan and recently Thailand - both countries supply critical parts for their cars here - bore the brunt of natural calamities.

Inaba took the wraps off a 2012 refresh model of their most popular offering in the country, the Honda City, as well as their first foray in the country’s fiercely competitive B+ segment, the Honda Brio. The Brio was initially launched in 2011, but production came to a standstill owing to the Thailand floods.

However, the company claims that of the 7,000-odd bookings that were made before calamity affected production at their Greater Noida Plant, Honda had managed to deliver 2,000 vehicles. HSCI says that the remaining deliveries will be made by March-end, as its plant runs at full capacity with two-shift production.

Natural disasters apart, the Japanese carmaker has seen sales decelerate, as it is currently the only player in the premium and super-premium segments that does not offer diesel variants.

The company had sold around 35,000 vehicles across the country during April 2011 - January 2012, as compared to 50,000 during the same period in the previous year, said a company official.

Gujarat, said zonal head Anil Baweja, “Is the third largest market for us in India, with 11% (5,500 cars) of our annual sales coming from here. To expand our network, we are currently surveying tier-II and III cities of the state as in the rest of the country to start dealerships in.”