Even as Honda unveiled the new gen City last month in Thailand, the Indian subsidiary has updated the existing model with BS6 petrol engine. This suggests that the popular mid-size sedan will continue to be sold in India in its existing avatar well into next year.
As of now, only the petrol variant of the Honda City has received the BS6 update. The City diesel BS6 is slated to be introduced just before the April 2020 deadline.
The 1.5-liter i-VTEC petrol engine continues to made identical power and torque outputs (119 hp and 145 Nm respectively) in BS6 avatar. The emission reduction changes to the engine has made the car dearer by up to INR 16,000 depending on the trim level.
As expected, both the standard 6-speed manual gearbox and optional Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) have been retained. The Honda City petrol BS6 starts at INR 9.91 lakh for the base SV MT variant and goes all the way up to INR 14.31 lakh for the ZX CVT trim. All prices are ex-showroom, Mumbai.
Mr. Rajesh Goel, Sr. Vice President & Director, Marketing and Sales, Honda Cars India Ltd, said, “Honda is committed to bring its latest and advanced environment friendly technologies to the Indian market in line with the policy framework of Government of India. The launch of BS-6 Honda City will be followed by sequential introduction of BS-6 versions of other models in our line-up.” He further added, “The new Digipad 2.0 in the Honda City will provide enhanced features, along with greater access and connectivity on the go to our customers, thereby delivering ease and convenience.”
It remains to be seen how much will be the price hike for the diesel variant since the oil burning BS6 variant would involve more extensive re-engineering and additional equipment to meet the stringent emission norms. Once the next generation model is ready for India towards the end of this year, the updated powertrain lineup will be carried forward.
The 1.5-liter i-VTEC BS6 engine will also be employed by the BR-V. The smaller 1.2-liter i-VTEC motor which propels the Jazz, Amaze and WR-V is also set to receive the update sometime closer to the deadline.
The Honda City has been fighting it out with the Maruti Ciaz and Hyundai Verna in a segment that has been witnessing shrinking footprint due to the rise of crossovers. Though the next generation model is expected to bring in some incremental volumes during the initial few months, it has its work cut out in an environment where a bunch of new competitively priced crossovers are set to hit the market.
Nevertheless, an all-new City is always a good news for the Honda loyalists in India.
