Honda Cars India has officially discontinued its three models – Jazz hatchback, WR-V compact SUV and fourth-generation City sedan. The Japanese carmaker has decided not to update them to comply with the BS6 Phase 2 emission standards. Furthermore, all three cars were at the end of their life cycles and have poor sales performance for a long time. With this move, the carmaker left with just two models in its portfolio – the fifth-generation City and Amaze subcompact sedan.
The fourth-generation Honda City was introduced in 2014 and sold alongside the fifth-gen City that arrived in 2020. The Honda Jazz hatchback was first launched in 2014 and received BS6 update in 2020. The Honda WR-V, which was essentially based on the Jazz, came in the market in early 2017. In terms of sales, the compact SUV was relatively better than the fourth-generation City and Jazz.
The Japanese automaker stopped production of its 1.5L i-DTEC diesel engine ahead of the implementation of the RDE (Real Driving Emissions) norms in India. The diesel engines require major investments to meet the stricter, new emission regulations.
The critical third offering from Honda will be a midsize SUV that’s reported to debut in May 2023, followed by its market launch. Here, it will be positioned against the Hyundai Creta, Maruti Grand Vitara, Kia Seltos and Toyota Hyryder. Powertrain setup of the new Honda SUV is likely to include a 1.5L iVTEC petrol and a 1.5L Atkinson cycle with e:HEV hybrid tech.
Both motors power the fifth-generation City. While the regular petrol unit delivers a maximum power of 121bhp and 145Nm of torque, the strong hybrid system delivers 109bhp and 253Nm of torque. It can be had with either a manual or a CVT automatic gearbox. In terms of design, the new Honda SUV will share its elements with the brand’s global SUVs.
