Honda Motor Co. which stayed away so far from launching diesel cars in India is now making an u-turn in its policy by focusing more on diesel powered cars, the company’s top executive said at 2011 Tokyo Motor Show. The Japanese giant introduce a new 1.6L diesel engine which could power its City or Civic sedan.
“We are aware of the petrol price increase in India but we consider that as a sign of growth in the Indian market… definitely we are currently developing diesel engine cars,” Honda R&D Co (Automobile R&D Center) Managing Officer, Chief Officer (Development Operations) Yasuhisa Arai said. “(Indian) market is asking for more diesel engine cars and we are fully aware of that.”
Arai also said as far as India is concerned, the company’s focus will be on the compact car segment to drive volumes. “We had developed Brio (compact car) for India, Since we see limited opportunities for large size vehicles, our emphasis is on small compact cars for India,” he added.
Honda Siel Cars India launched Brio small car in September for the starting price of Rs 3.95 lakh. It is equipped with a 1.2-litre i-VTEC engine as that in the Jazz with Variable Valve timing churning out 86.7 bhp at 6000 rpm and 11.12kgm at 4800rpm, coupled to a five-speed manual gearbox.
