Honda SIEL India is worried about the fierce competition to Honda City from the refreshed sedans in its segment offering better engines, features and more value for money. The recent report on Honda City sales affected by Maruti SX4 Diesel and Volkswagen Vento clearly indicates that Honda need to work on it. Better late then never, Honda has acknowledged that it need to bring in the Diesel variant for its most popular sedan in India, the Honda City. Honda City Diesel will be powered by an all new engine which will be nearly 1.5 Litre in displacement. The engine is still under the development stage and may take up to two years to take final shape. Since the existing diesel engines of Honda are not at par with the latest CRDI diesel engines in terms of performance and emission, so Honda has decided to develop better engines to power its diesel cars for future years.
As per an official statement from Jnaneswar Sen, senior vice-president (sales & marketing) at Honda SIEL
We are developing a diesel engine in Japan to power City. It could take us more than two years. The rapid dieselization of the market has happened only in the last one year, as the price difference between diesel and petrol has gone up from Rs. 10 to Rs. 21. We had to prioritize our efforts to be a big brand with big volumes, which will come from Honda Brio.
What this means for sedan buyers in India is that if they are looking for a modern sedan with frugal diesel engine and latest features, they have to look for sedans other than Honda City till 2013. This long period of 2 years may mean a lot of sedans on Indian roads in next two years will not be Honda City, as it may further loose out on the market share with the highly competitive cars coming in like the Hyundai Verna RB Fluidic launched on 11 May 2011. Also the Ford Fiesta 2011 new model is going to eat up Honda City’s sales even more.
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