Honda Cars India has officially confirmed that the company has pulled off the Accord from production line. The Accord was the Japanese major’s flagship product in India.It also set a benchmark in D segment cars. Absence of a diesel engine primarily compelled Honda to take this step.
Jnaneshwar Sen, Senior Vice-President for Marketing and Sales at Honda Cars India, confirmed the development by saying, “We have stopped production of the current eighth-generation of Accord in India. It is our flagship brand and we would be looking at the next generation of the sedan for Indian customers, though the exact launch details have not been worked out yet.” The auto company will now be focusing on other vehicles namely Brio, Amaze and CR-V.
Honda Accord is not the lone vehicle to have suffered such a blow as earlier Civic too faced a similar fate. Civic was once a segment leader, but unfortunately could not keep-up with its rivals like Hyundai Elantra, Toyota Corolla Altis and Chevrolet Cruze. Weak market response and diminishing sales compelled the auto maker to stop production of the model.
Accord was priced between Rs. 20.44 lakh and Rs. 21.23 lakh. Absence of a diesel version too was a contributing factor. Just to hint, Honda India could sell only 272 units of this vehicle in the first eight months of this current fiscal. Even though the auto maker has stopped production of the eighth-generation of Accord in the country, it does have plans to introduce the next generation version soon.
