Honda Jazz India Launch Will Be The Hatchback To Look Forward To

By Ganesh

Updated: Wednesday, May 7, 2014, 10:33 [IST]

We recently interacted with Mr. Jnaneswar Sen, Senior Vice President Marketing and Sales, Honda Cars India during a round table conference held in Bangalore. Among various topics discussed were the upcoming Mobilio MPV and Jazz premium hatchback.

Here's what to know about the Mobilio MPV coming to India

Honda Jazz

The Jazz will make a return to India, but its not clear when exactly the launch will take place. It will, however, take place in this financial year. If not by the end of this year, before March 2015.

The new Jazz is yet to be homologated for India and as such the variants, among other things have not been finalised. For instance, it is yet to be decided whether the Jazz will be produced at Honda's Tapukara, Rajasthan facility or at Greater Noida.

What, however, is confirmed is that the premium hatchback will be relatively less expensive than the last time it was here. This will be made possible due to increased level of localization. What was about 70 percent last time, will be pushed to about 90 percent.

What will also help in keeping prices in check is increased component sharing among all the models sold by Honda in India. While the Brio, Amaze and Mobilio are built on the same platform, the City and Jazz share their architecture.

Engines will once again be shared with the City, though these are yet to be finalised. A CVT automatic variant is confirmed for the Jazz thought.

Since the higher variants of the Amaze and lower variants of the City will coincide with the Jazz in terms of pricing, we could witness some cannibalization. Mr Sen, however, dismissed it on the grounds of the psychographic profile of buyers being different.

He also said that the Jazz would not suffer the same fate as last time since times have changed and buyers are ready for a premium hatchback like the Jazz.

Do you agree with that? Do you think Indian buyers are ready for a premium hatchback that cost as much as a sedan? Will the new Jazz succeed where the old Jazz failed? Let us know what you feel in the comments section below.

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