Honda has announced that it will unveil a “New Small Concept” car at the upcoming Delhi Auto Show. The car is expected to be built in India and Thailand and will be sold in the emerging markets. Honda insiders have also indicated that the car could be sold in the West later on. Honda will reveal more details about the car, its production date and target price at the Auto Expo in Delhi.
Honda’s announcement about its “new small concept” car comes right after the announcement of its Japanese rival Toyota who announced that it will be launching its small car model at the Delhi Auto Expo. Toyota’s small car is code named as Entry Family Car which will be given a different name once it goes into production and hit the roads finally. With the car, Toyota aims at emerging markets like Brazil, Russia, India and Latin America.
Honda will face severe competition in this segment from Maruti Suzuki that currently holds more than 50 percent market share. Moreover, small cars from other automakers like Nissan Micra, Ford Figo, Chevrolet Beat, VW Polo, VW Up! are other new entrants in the market. Out of these small cars coming to India next year, Nissan Micra is being developed in the same fashion as Honda’s new small concept car. Nissan Micra is currently being developed on a global platform that will be cheap enough for the emerging markets and can be topped up to be made sophisticated enough for the developed markets.
