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Honda Brio Crossover To Be Built In India?
Today is a big day for Honda Motors India as it marks the return of one of its best selling cars in the country, the City sedan. Honda is trying to bring back the glory days of the once popular model with the launch of an all new iDTEC diesel engine to the lineup.
Key to Honda's growth strategy in India is the new diesel engine. Besides the City the same diesel unit will also be used in two other upcoming models for India, the Mobilio MPV and Jazz hatchback. Honda is expecting India and Indonesia to alone account for half of its total production in Asia and if it is to reach this goal it needs to diversify and that's exactly the automaker plans on doing.
Related: Why Honda Vezel Is Unsuitable For India
According to previous rumors, the Mobilio MPV will be previewed at the Auto Expo in Feb, along with the Jazz. While the Mobilio is expected to be launched in the following couple of months, the launch of the Jazz would be held during the festive season. But the launch dates could well be delayed so that the Jazz only comes to India towards the end of the next financial year.
Besides these two confirmed launches, Honda Motor India president and CEO Yoshiyuki Matsumoto has also stated that the company plans to develop a made in India car for sale locally and in neighbouring countries. This sounds a lot like the Brio based compact SUV that we told you about earlier.
Also Read: Brio Based Crossover In Place Of Vezel In India
Since the Vezel has proved to be too expensive to be priced as an entry level crossover Honda plans on developing the Brio platform to accommodate a crossover. This new vehicle is only meant for emerging markets and will take on the Ford EcoSport and Renault Duster. "I understand I am in India for developing a made-in-India car but before that we need to bring down our cost and ramp up our R&D," ET quotes Matsumoto as saying.
Honda is likely to follow in Ford's footsteps by totally concentrating the production of the Brio crossover in India for local sales as well as for exports. To keep production costs in check the Crossover is also expected to share its hardware with the Mobilio MPV. The new vehicle is still far from launch though and could only make its debut by late 2015 or early 2016.
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