Honda City Hybrid India Launch in the Offing

It has been revealed that Honda Cars India is developing an India-spec hybrid car based on the Honda City. This hybrid sedan is expected to launch next year, once the market might has recovered from the slowdown caused by the pandemic. 

Honda is planning to develop a localized hybrid car for the India market

It is still too soon to state anything regarding the body type of the upcoming hybrid Honda car. However, a lot of sources suggest that the new hybrid car will be based on the fifth-gen Honda City which was launched in the country recently. While nothing is confirmed at the moment, what we know for sure that the new car will be produced locally and hence, will be priced aggressively.

This is not the first time the Japanese car manufacturer will try its luck with hybrid cars. Back in 2008, Honda introduced the Honda Civic Hybrid at a price of Rs 21.50 lakh. The sedan was not a commercial success and was discontinued pretty soon. After the failure with the Civic Hybrid, Honda had the second attempt with the Honda Accord Hybrid in 2016 but, once again, failed to meet the expected result. These two cars could not make it in the Indian market, and hybrid segment, in particular, possibly because electric-powered cars, in general, were foreign to the India customers back then. However, the situation is different now and Honda can stay positive about its upcoming product.

Honda City First Drive Review - Hindi

According to Gaku Nakanishi, President and CEO of Honda Cars India, the company has suffered from sales reduction in the first quarter of this fiscal but in the second quarter, the company has made some progression. In June, sales of Honda Cars India was down 60% compared to the same period last year. Nakanishi predicts that the sales decline might go on until the end of 2020. However, the executive expects that the sales will start to recover in the second quarter of FY2021. Mr Nakanishi also confirms that the company will follow the scheduled timeline and will not delay the launch of the hybrid car.

Recently, Honda launched the new generation Honda City in the Indian market. Like we said it is very possible that the new hybrid car will be based on the new-gen City. Information about the about powertrain of the new hybrid is rare at this point. Still, some sources speculate that it will be underpinned by e:HEV powertrain. This would be a revised version of the powertrain used on the Honda Fit (Jazz) petrol Hybrid. Honda Fit petrol hybrid drivetrain draws power from a 1.5-litre i-VTEC petrol motor and a dual electric motor. It produces a top power of 108 bhp and a maximum torque of 253 Nm.