Finally, Honda has decided to be a part of the rising diesel sedan bandwagon. This news has been confirmed to CarTrade.com by reliable source. Honda will be launching the new generation Honda City on November 25 in New Delhi. This is believed to be a global debut of the model.
Following the above fact, Honda will not launch the petrol version on the same day but instead will do so a month later. The petrol engine will be the same 1.5L i-VTEC unit which is doing rounds on the present model but then it will have a minor upgrade resulting in better fuel efficiency. The petrol unit will continue to produce power of 118PS at 6600 rpm and torque of 146Nm at 4800rpm. Honda will introduce this version in December.
The much awaited diesel unit will be a definite upgrade of the i-DTEC engine which was launched in the Amaze. Honda had refrained from launching the Diesel City earlier as the company did not wish to take chances by just switching engines and instead wanted to make sure that the new diesel engine is perfectly tuned for the new City. The i-DTEC on the Amaze produces a power of 100PS at 3600 rpm and a torque of 200 Nm at 1750 rpm. These numbers will definitely witness a rise when fitted on the new City.
Other than making its diesel debut in India, Honda will finally challenge the dominant positions of Hyundai Verna and Skoda Rapid. Being based on the newly developed H-Design first, the new generation City will definitely revive the C segment of cars in India with great features. Timing the diesel launch before the petrol version seems to be a very thoughtful move as the company has decided to get aggressive in the volumes segment and the diesel Honda City is definitely hotly anticipated product from Honda.
