Honda Cars India Limited, a subsidiary of the Japanese car maker Honda has enjoyed a huge amount of success through its City sedan in the recent time. Since the demand for petrol cars have taken a hit owing to the increasing fuel prices, the sales of Honda City have been effected to a large extent. With the overwhelming meted out the diesel version of Amaze, it has prompted Honda to include diesel engine in City as well. According to sources, the company is working on a diesel variant of City that would be launched in Indian car market any time soon. On the other hand, Honda's rivals like Hyundai, Maruti Suzuki, Volkswagen, Skoda and Nissan have introduced diesel variants of their respective cars. Currently, the mid-size sedan segment is dominated by Verna Fluidic and Vento model. But considering the kind of response meted out to the diesel engine of Amaze, Honda City would take the market by storm.
Going by reports, the diesel version of Honda City is expected to hit the Indian car market by the early phase of 2014. The car is likely to be equipped with the company's state-of-the-art i-DTEC diesel engine, which currently does its duty on Amaze model. The 1.5 litre i-DTEC oil burner of Honda Amaze will be tweaked somewhat to offer a better performance in the upcoming City diesel. The possibility of City diesel incorporating a more powerful i-DTEC engine cannot be ruled out as the company has not divulged any information as of now. Initially, the car will be available in a 5-speed manual transmission that would soon be followed by the launch of an automatic version.
If rumours are to be believed, Honda will structuring the diesel version of City with G-CON (G-Force Control Technology), which helps in lowering the impact caused in case the car collides with any object. The automatic gearbox of diesel version of Honda City will be provided with paddle shifters as given in petrol variant. Going by the rumours, the fuel economy offered by the car could be somewhere around 12 to 15 kmpl. As the diesel engine would be powerful than petrol one, the upcoming model would be faster and better.
Honda City has been able to establish a name for itself in the Indian car market owing to its sleek design. The diesel variant of City sedan is expected to be same as the petrol one.However, industry experts are betting that the company might provide halogen headlamps, chrome door lock handles, green tinted glass and 5-spoke alloy wheels in City diesel.
The interiors of Honda City diesel are expected to be kept the same as given in the petrol version. The car will be have leather seat upholstery, automatic air conditioning system, tilt steering wheel and chrome accentuated buttons on central console. For serving entertainment needs of passengers, a better multimedia touch screen system having support for Bluetooth, AUX-In, MP3 and iPod cable will be present. Also to mention, a audio visual navigation system will be present on the diesel version of City. In terms of safety features, Honda City diesel will get ABS (Anti-lock Braking System) with EBD (Electronic Brake-force Distribution), dual front SRS airbags for driver and co-passenger and rear parking sensors.
In terms of price, the car is expected to be placed somewhere around Rs. 9 lakh for the base variant that will further go till Rs. 12 lakh for the top-end trim. As far as the launch date of the car is concerned, the company has not revealed any details regarding it but industry experts are predicting an early 2014 launch.
