Honda midsize SUV: By the middle of 2023, Honda’s brand-new midsize SUV will be available for purchase in India. In the upcoming months, this new SUV will make its debut on a global scale and will initially go on sale in India. Honda announced that starting in 2023, it will add one new model to its India lineup each year in addition to the City facelift.
Capacity to be ramped up ahead of SUV launch
With the release of the facelifted City and the new midsize SUV, which will go on sale sometime between July and September, Honda Cars India (HCIL) anticipates outpacing its competitors in the passenger vehicle (PV) market in the upcoming year.
Takuya Tsumura, president and chief executive officer of HCIL, said in our sister publication Autocar Professional that the company will attempt to grow more quickly than it did last year by expanding the addressable market through new launches. Starting in April 2023, when it will be closer to releasing the new SUV, the company’s plant in Tapukara, Rajasthan, will increase its daily vehicle production from 540 vehicles to up to 660 vehicles.
Prices of newly facelifted variants
With prices ranging from Rs 11.49 lakh to Rs 20.39 lakh, ex-showroom, Honda Cars India unveiled a facelifted version of the new City. By including the hybrid-powered models in the V (Rs. 18.89 lakh) and ZX (Rs. 20.39 lakh) trims of the redesigned City, the company has also increased the market for these models.
Honda midsize SUV: Honda City Facelift
The updated City costs about Rs 15,000–35,000 more than the outgoing model, but the manufacturer asserts that the value provided to the customer is significantly higher because ADAS features are also exclusively offered in the manual-transmission versions of the updated City.
About the competitors
The Skoda Slavia, Volkswagen Virtus, Maruti Suzuki Ciaz, and the brand-new Hyundai Verna, which goes on sale later this month, will be strong competitors for the updated Honda City.
Higher allocation for City Hybrid
In FY24, Honda anticipates a higher allocation for the updated City’s hybrid models, and it projects that the City hybrid will represent 15–20% of the car’s overall sales.
Tsumura claimed that due to lower allocation from Japan and the high demand for hybrids in India, HCIL was unable to meet the demand. “We should be getting higher allocation for hybrid variants with the introduction of the facelifted City, and we expect about 15-20 percent of the City’s sales to come from hybrid trim,” he continued.
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