We have been constantly been reporting about the possibility of Honda launching a new SUV based on the Jazz and now the news is official. Honda’s CEO has confirmed in his speech that the company will launch a new compact SUV based on the Jazz platform. Honda will first launch the next generation Jazz in early 2013 and the compact SUV is expected based on it is expected 2015. The Jazz based compact SUV will be primarily launched for European markets, but we could anticipate the same to be launched in Indian and other international markets. The car would compete with the likes of the Mini Countryman and Nissan Juke. Honda didn’t share any technical details or name of this new model.
Honda also confirmed the introduction of a small diesel engines for its cars in India by 2014. It is anticipated that Honda will sequentially roll out diesel variants in all of its models for the Indian market to get its grip back. The company has also declared that it will focus on bringing sedan type and utility type cars based on the Brio platform for cost-competitive Indian and other Asian markets. The Japanese automaker also revealed that it will roll out the new model of its successful City in 2015. All the models will have distinctive features and are target towards the volume market of small cars.
Compact SUV segment is all set to be spiced up with the introduction of new SUV based on Jazz as more buyers are moving towards such segment of cars. Come 2013, Ford will launch the EcoSport, while the Renault Duster, Premier RiO and Mahindra Quanto are compact SUVs which are already on sale in the country. Even GM is planning to bring in a compact SUV, which is already developed and badged the Trax. Maruti Suzuki is expected to bring the XA Alpha to production by 2014, while Volkswagen is working on multiple compact SUVs and crossovers. The compact SUV battle has just begun.
