The much-touted small car from the Honda stable, to be launched in the Indian market in 2011, will sport a 1.2-litre engine and will be priced around Rs 4-4.5 lakh. The car would be showcased in the forthcoming Auto Expo here, beginning January 5.
The new small car would be the cheapest offering from the company?s bouquet of cars in the Indian market. It will be developed simultaneously in Bangkok and the company?s plant at Greater Noida. Work on design and other specifications has already begun.
Honda Siel India (HSI), the Indian joint venture arm of Honda Motors, Japan, has sent letters of intent (LOIs) to its existing suppliers in India, detailing about the likely designs and engine specifications, a person with direct knowledge of the development said.
The company will use both Thailand and India as manufacturing base for the new car and export it to the emerging markets, the person added. Recently, Honda had hired around 30 engineers for its research and development team at Greater Noida. The team will work closely with the R&D team in Bangkok to develop the small car and also focus on bringing down the production cost of this car by optimising component costs.
Currently, apart from City, Civic and Accord models, Honda has a premium hatchback, Jazz, which is the cheapest car from its stable with a price range starting from Rs 7 lakh. Jazz primarily targets the customers who opt for premium hatchbacks.
The car essentially competes with Maruti?s Swift, Hyundai?s i20, and Fiat?s Punto.
Small cars comprise nearly two-thirds of annual car sales in India and Maruti Suzuki India Ltd is the leader in this segment. Players like Honda, Toyota and General Motors have also recently started focusing on this segment. The government is also aiming at making India a hub for small cars.
?At Honda we believe in constant innovation to offer advanced technology that not only makes our cars fun to drive but also addresses the ever-increasing concern about the environment,” HSCI director (sales & marketing) Tatsuya Natsume said. The company, however, refused to divulge more on either on the new car, its price or the engine capacity.
Incidentally, Toyota is also slated to showcase its small car concept ? codenamed entry-level car (EFC)?on the same date at the Auto Expo.
In addition to the new small concept, the company will exhibit the CR-Z Concept 2009, a concept model for a new hybrid model, which was unveiled for the first time at the Tokyo Motor Show in October this year. Besides the concept cars, Honda will also showcase its humanoid Robot, ASIMO and a special display zone — Design Corner — that will provide a glimpse of the elements involved in designing a car from scratch.