Honda’s Tapukara plant in Rajasthan is going to commence production of the 1.6-litre i-DTec diesel engines. These engines will be exported to the Thailand market.
The Tapukara plant has a separate engine production facility which currently caters only to the domestic market. Currently, the company manufactures around 440 units of 1.2-litre petrol, 1.5-litre petrol and 1.5-litre diesel engines every day. However, the capacity of the plant is relatively higher at 730 engines per day, and we can expect some of this capacity to be utilised for the 1.6-litre diesel engine. As of now, Honda has been exporting engine components to 15 countries, though this is the first time the company will ship off diesel engines to a global market.
The commencement of production of 1.6-litre engines could open new avenues for Honda’s premium range in India. While Honda’s small cars do get the option of diesel engines, the Accord and the CRV are currently available only with petrol engines. The revised GST rates will make the Accord Hybrid significantly more expensive which means that Honda might introduce a diesel engine in the line-up to keep it competitive. And given that diesel SUVs enjoy higher demand than the petrol-powered counterparts, a similar case can be made for the Honda CR-V.
