Honda has tasted success with its i-DTEC diesel engine in India and now the company will offer diesel engines on all of its future offerings.
Honda India until recently only used to sell vehicles with petrol engines and the auto giant received a lot of flak for it. The company then finally went on to introduce a diesel engine for the Indian market and stated that the oil burner has been developed specifically for our market after a lot of thorough testing. The 1.5-litre i-DTEC diesel engine has been plonked in the Amaze compact sedan, City mid-size sedan and the Mobilio MPV and diesel variants of all these models have gone on to become successful, especially both the sedans. Now, riding high on this feat, Honda has stated that they will standardise diesel engines across the entire range that will be sold here.
Honda has managed to sell more than 1 lakh diesel vehicles in India since the launch of the i-DTEC engine. Company officials claim that the diesel Mobilio, Amaze and City units plying across the country have completed more than 90 crore kms cumulatively. Honda had always been a leader in the C-segment with its City but the City started moving downwards after Hyundai launched the new Verna, which comes with a choice of two diesel engines. At a time when buyers were preferring diesel thanks to high petrol prices, Honda had no offering in the market. With the launch of the diesel City, the company dethroned the Verna from the top position.
Honda is optimistic about doubling its sales in India to approximately 3 lakh cars in the next two years. All the new models that the automaker will launch in India will come with diesel engines because buyers prefer the high fuel efficiency that oil burners provide. With petrol prices coming down, petrol variants too are seeing a slight growth in sales but Honda still feels that diesel is the future. As of now, 40 percent of Honda’s sales are coming from diesel cars. The company is planning to expand its dealership network to 230 dealerships covering 150 cities by March 2015.
Source – Economic Times