Bookings for 2020 Honda Civic BS6 diesel can be made online using Honda from Home service
Honda Car India Ltd (HCIL) has announced the commencement of pre-booking for the BS6 diesel variants of Civic sedan. The entry D-segment sedan with updated oil-burner will be going on sale in India next month.
It is to be noted that the petrol variants of the Civic have been compliant with BS6 norms since their launch in March 2019. The 1.6-liter i-DTEC diesel engine is mated to a 6-speed manual transmission. Honda has not revealed the performance figures of the updated version but we expect it to stay identical to the BS4 version which develops 118 hp and 300 Nm of torque. The CR-V diesel BS6 variant which employs the same engine is also likely to be introduced in the coming months.
Honda has been taking its time to make its diesel variants compliant with the new emission standards. The City BS6 is currently available only in petrol avatar but the 1.5-liter i-DTEC is expected to receive an update in the coming months, perhaps onboard the soon-to-be-launched next-gen City.
The petrol variants of the Civic are powered by the brand’s popular 1.8-liter i-VTEC petrol engine which is good enough for 141 hp and 174 Nm of torque. The engine is mated exclusively with a CVT.
The 2020 Honda Civic diesel BS6 can be either pre-booked at authorized dealerships or through Honda from Home online sales platform. Prices of the updated diesel variants are still under wraps but we expect a considerable inflation. The premium sedan competes with Skoda Octavia and Hyundai Elantra in a steadily diminishing segment.
HCIL started 2020 with a sales decline of 71% in Jan 2020 as it only dispatched BS6 models. The drop in figures could be attributed to its initiative to deplete dealer-level stock of BS4 models. In March 2020, the Japanese automaker registered a YoY sales decline of 79% in the country with only 3,697 units sold as against 17,201 units sold during March 2019. With only 375 units sold, the brand’s May 2020 sales represented a YoY decline of 96.72%, highest in the passenger car segment.
Honda is betting heavily on the next-generation City to improve things in second half of 2020. The all-new sedan which is claimed to be vastly improved in every aspect was supposed to be launched already but it was delayed due to the lockdown. Updated diesel variants of other models are also expected to contribute to revival.
