Updated on 28th February 2014
Honda is on a roll, especially after launching diesel variants of almost all their new cars, be it the Honda Amaze or the Honda City. For long time Honda had argued that fuel quality in India was preventing them from launching their diesel engine lineup in India and the petrol engines were efficient enough to take on the diesel offerings from their competitors. Their negligence in acting on the Indian consumer’s demands spelled the doom for most of the cars in their lineup, but the new generation of cars have benefited tremendously with the addition of diesel engines. The next addition to this successful lineup will be the Honda CR-V diesel, which could be launched in India as soon as early 2015.
The CR-V was unveiled with a 1.6-litre Earth Dreams diesel engine at the 2013 Geneva Motor show (read update below). The same engine is expected to be plonked into the CR-V in India without much changes. The 1.5-litre diesel produces 118 BHP / 200 Nm and is expected to be offered with a manual transmission and in front-wheel drive guise only. This is to keep the softroader/crossover even, in terms of performance, to it’s petrol variants; The petrol variants of the CR-V are powered by either a 2.0-litre 154 BHP / 189 Nm engine or a 2.4-litre 187 BHP / 225 Nm engine. Offering an AWD system on the diesel variant will make it too heavy and that would not help it compete with it’s competition or with it’s own petrol variants. The trump card of the CR-V diesel will be the fuel-efficiency it will offer along with the quality, performance and handling characteristics that the crossover is known for.
Honda will produce the 1.5-litre Earth Dreams motor at Honda’s newly inaugurated plant in Tapukara, Rajasthan. This would mean that the company can price the variant pretty aggressively; expected starting price for the Honda CR-V diesel is about Rs. 25 Lakh, ex-showroom. The petrol variants of the Honda CR-V are priced between Rs. 20 Lakh and Rs. 24 Lakh, ex-showroom Delhi.
[box type=”info” width=”720″ ]Read more about Honda Car India’s new plant at Tapukara, Rajasthan here[/box]
What do you think about the Honda CR-V diesel? Is it a good move by Honda? Is it too late? Let us know in the comments section below. We will keep you updated on the Honda CR-V diesel, subscribe to our daily newsletter.
News Source: Autocar India
Updated on 8th March 2013
Honda is betting big on its i-DTEC motors as company is going to enter the diesel car segments for the first time and these are uncharted waters for the company as of now. The company has fitted the 1.6 litre diesel motor in the Honda Civic and it will be joined by the Honda CR-V Diesel as they will now bring the CR-V in diesel guise as well. Honda has just unveiled the diesel CR-V at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show which will surely help Honda gain a strong footing in the diesel segments.
The CR-V 1.6 litre diesel motor produces 118 BHP and a peak torque of 300 NM. It will surely provide a nice fuel efficiency figure and it will be available on the 2-wheel drive version which will be mated to manual transmission. It weighs 47 kg less than the 2.2 litre i-DTEC motor which we believe will make its way on to the CR-V later in the day because the newer engine even though exceptionally good, is still anemic compared to engines of the cars like Fortuner, Endeavour and Pajero Sport.
The fuel prices are ever increasing and that has resulted in Honda finally giving up on producing just the petrol motors. Also the Earth Dreams technology that Honda will be using in their engines helps significantly reduce the emissions of the cars and at the same time, help in increasing the fuel efficiency. And it’s not just that, the use of the technology will also cater to the needs of those performance hungry folks as well and will offer that fun of driving most people look for in their cars.
Honda is expected to launch the diesel motor in CR-V, next generation of the Civic and most probably the next-gen City and Jazz. A scaled down version of the engine is present on the Amaze and that car will see a global roll out in 2013. The 1.5 litre i-DTEC motor in the Honda Amaze India, will be produced locally to keep the costs down and 2014 might be year when Honda’s diesel motors start dominating the sales charts.
