Honda has begun delivering City petrol to the customers as promised by the company at the launch on 2014, Honda City. Honda until now was delivering City diesel to the customers, the company had deliberately planned to commence delivery of City petrol by mid of February 2014. Honda did not want any delay in the delivery of City diesel, therefore they decided not to deliver City petrol for two months. After Amaze, City sedan got a diesel heart and the company had anticipated to get unprecedented response for the latter. Due to the availability of diesel variant of City sedan, around 70% of the total bookings received initially accounted for City diesel. This has resulted in prolonged waiting period, however, with the company’s second manufacturing plant inaugurated recently in Tapukara, Rajasthan, Honda aims at enhanced production to meet demand. Also the company is hopeful that once the production normalises, the wide gap between the demand of petrol and diesel variants of city will reduce.
Honda launched the new version of City sedan in diesel and petrol variants on January 7, 2014. A newly developed 1.5 litre i-DTEC diesel engine powers City diesel, this is the same engine that was first introduced in sub-four meter compact sedan, Amaze. The high on performance diesel motor churns out a maximum power output of 100 Bhp along with a high torque of 200 Nm. Petrol variant of City on the hand is equipped with a 1.5 litre i-VTEC engine that generates a maximum power of 119 Bhp and a top torque of 145 Nm.
After the launch of Amaze and new City sedan, Honda India witnessed a sudden upsurge in sales which led to 188% growth in sales. Company hopes that the monthly sales will follow an upward trend for the rest of the year too.
