Honda plans to launch a new hybrid car in India

A new report from PTI suggests that the Japanese carmaker Honda is planning to launch a new hybrid car in India. And it is believed from the previous reports that Honda is planning to launch an electrified variant of the next-gen Honda City in 2020. Other carmakers are racing towards the EV launches in India while Honda is still not sold on the idea of leaping hybrid vehicles. The company is planning to introduce hybrid vehicles in our market before launching EVs. Rajesh Goel, Senior Vice President and Director, Honda Cars India, told PTI "We will begin our electrification journey in two years with hybrid technology,"

The company is planning to introduce hybrid vehicles in our market before launching EVs. 

In the year 2017, reports came out that the company is planning to launch next-gen Honda City and the next-gen Honda Jazz Hybrid variants in India. While there have been no such advancements on the launch of a Honda Jazz Hybrid in our market afterwards, there have been new rumours regarding the launch of Honda City Hybrid. Previously, reports suggest that the new upcoming car will be a full-hybrid vehicle like in the global markets. Then sometime later, new reports stated that the new EV would be a mild-hybrid car as launching a full-hybrid vehicle would be quite expensive for buyers in India.

The Honda City hybrid is expected to rub its shoulders against the likes of next-gen Maruti Ciaz Hybrid.

We expect the new-gen Honda City will get launch in early 2020. The all-new model will have a full-hybrid variant for sale in Japan and other Asian markets. We expect India to be one of these Asian markets. The car is expected to rub its shoulders against the likes of next-gen Maruti Ciaz Hybrid. On the other hand, the Honda Jazz will going to have a full-hybrid variant as well as a pure electric variant, internationally. While the current-gen model is not that popular among the buyers, but we expect the new-gen model will to receive some success. For now, there's only one Hybrid car in Honda's portfolio, the Accord Hybrid which is quite aged and, extremely expensive to burn a hole in buyers pockets. The sedan carries a price tag of Rs 43.21 lakh (ex-showroom).