Honda City diesel will be a game changer

Honda has sold 4.3 lakh Citys in the past fifteen years in India, all petrol. The Japanese carmaker didn’t have a diesel engine then, so it’s not much of a surprise. What is surprising is despite diesel loving Indians ignored most petrol offerings once the dieselization of the Indian auto industry set in a few years ago, Honda still managed to roll out a few thousand units of the car every month. 

Add a diesel heart to the City brand and its success is limited only by the number of cars the company will be able to roll out of its Greater Noida facility. The City will be powered by the same i-DTEC mill doing duty in the Amaze. For the City though, the engine has been tweaked to deliver more power and torque. We expect the diesel to dole out around 10 percent more output than the Amaze, which means in the range of 110PS and 220-240NM of torque. 

The Amaze is a very fuel efficient car with a company claimed economy of 25.8kpl. Since the City is a larger and comparatively heavier car, and also one with more power, it will return figures a tad less than the Amaze but Honda has done its best to make the car as efficient as possible. The one very noticable effort is giving the Honda City skinny 175/65 R15 tyres, the logic being simple, lesser the contact patch to the road, more the efficiency. 

Honda is betting big on the diesel. Dealers inform us that the first batch of cars manufactured are diesels only. The interest around the diesel City is high so bookings began even before the car was revealed. Honda dealers around the country are accepting bookings at Rs 51,000 for both the petrol and the diesel. Cars will be dispatched to showrooms around the first week of January a week before its launch and will be available for test drives by end of January. 

Deliveries should begin by the first week of February. Honda was eager to launch the City sooner but beginning manufacturing in 2013 would have meant higher depreciation for the first set of cars. That’s the reason why the launch is in the beginning of 2014.

Hyundai’s Verna is the king in this segment. There’s imminent threat to its kingdom.