Updated On 23 October 2012
Honda Cars India has officially launched the Honda City CNG in India at an ex-showroom Delhi price of Rs. 9.53 Lakhs ex-showroom Delhi. The CNG variant will be available only with the V Grade of the City and the fitment of the CNG kit will be done at 45 Honda authorized dealerships across 28 Cities in India. At present, the CNG fuel is present only in few states of India, so it makes sense to do the retrofitting at the authorized dealers rather than at the factory.
The price of the CNG ready Honda City Rs. 9.03 Lakhs ex-showroom Delhi. On this, the customers need to pay Rs. 50,200 for the CNG kit and some installation charges which are extra making a total of approx. Rs. 9.53+ Lakhs which is higher than the petrol only V grade version by around Rs. 60,000. The V grade with CNG comes with may safety features as standard including- ABS (Anti-Lock Braking System) with Brake Assist (BA), Dual SRS airbags, pre-tensioner seat belts. The front body structure of the car ensures advanced pedestrian safety features.
Along with the new Honda City CNG Bi-Fuel version, Honda has also added two more new variants in the V grade with the AVN (Audio Visual Navigation System). These two variants are the City V MT with AVN and City V AT with AVN. These new AVN variants have following extra feature:
- Touch Screen Infotainment system
- Audio Visual Navigation
- Bluetooth
- DVD player in addition to CD Player
- USB/I-Pod/Aux-in connectivity
- Leather upholstery with Leather wrapped steering wheel
- Leather wrapped Gear Shift Knob (in MT)
These extra features come at additional price of Rs. 78,000 over the corresponding V Grade of City without AVN.
With the new variants in the lineup, the new Honda City comes with a total of 11 options starting from Corporate version priced at Rs. 7.26 Lakhs to City V AT with sunroof price at Rs. 10.52 Lakhs.
Updated on 31 August 2012
Honda Cars India is soon going to launch the Honda City CNG in India to counter the dropping sales of the City in India because of steeper petrol prices. One of the major reasons behind falling sales is the absence of a diesel engine option in the Honda City in India. With the prices of petrol and hence the running costs of petrol cars increasing rapidly compared to diesel, more and more new car buyers in the C segment are opting for diesel cars. Because of the same, the sales of Honda City are not very pleasing compared to the competition. Honda City Diesel variant is lined up for launch for 2013 with the small car Honda Brio Diesel expected to launch before November 2012 as the first Honda Diesel car in India.
With absence of Honda City Diesel in India till its launch (likely to happen in 2013), Honda City CNG will help boost the sales of City in India. The car has been adapted to take on the CNG kit by doing the required modifications in the engine and the rear suspension of the car to take on the additional load of the CNG cylinder. The CNG kit by Honda will help bring down the running cost of the City and will make is economically more viable in terms of lower running costs. Also the CNG kit by Honda will not void any warranty or will not harm the engine as it has been designed, developed and tested by Honda.
The addition of CNG kit of City will increase the price of the CNG variant by approximately Rs. 60,000 compared to corresponding petrol only variants. The City sedan is priced at Rs. 7.25 Lakhs ex-showroom Delhi, this the expected ex-showroom price of the Honda City CNG is Rs. 7.85 Lakhs ex-showroom onwards. On the performance side, Honda City’s .15 Litre iVTEC Engine with a peak power of 116 BHP is expected to cope up well with the CNG fuel as there is usually small power loss of 5% to 10% in engine power, which will not be much noticeable in City as engine is quite powerful to pull the car even if there is a small power loss. Stay tuned to Car Blog India for more updates.
Updated on 31 August 2012:
On 29th August 2012, Honda has launched its Honda City CNG version in Thailand with a 3 years or 1 Lakhs Km standard warranty to instill confidence in buyers that it is in now way inferior to the petrol only version. The CNG system fitted in Honda City CNG is a fuel injection based microprocessor controlled unit. For enhanced safety, Honda has provided and electronic safety control box and solid cross bar for higher stability. In Thailand, Honda has launched the City CNG with S and V trims with automatic transmission models only.
With the addition of CNG, the power loss in the engine is quite considerable as the peak power of the CNG model in Thailand is rated as 100.6 BHP@ 6600 RPM and peak torque is rated at 127 Nm @ 4800 RPM while the petrol version of the City delivers a peak power of 116 BHP @ 6600 RPM and 146 Nm of torque at 4800 RPM. Also the weight of the car has increase by about 80 Kg with addition of the CNG cylinder and other components.
Since Honda City delivers one of the highest performance in its petrol cars segment, this power loss of about 10% still makes it well equipped to compete with the cars in this segment as most other petrol cars also deliver power in a range of 100 to 115 BHP only. The price difference in the CNG versions in Thailand is approximately 60,000 Bhats which is approximately Rs. 90,000 and the same kind of difference it expected in India as well when it comes to pricing compared to similar manual variants. We expect the Honda City CNG to launch in India in September-October 2012. We will keep you posted on the latest updates, you can bookmark this page and come back later for updates.
