The Honda Jazz diesel is India’s second most fuel efficient vehicle and the most efficient car in its segment, returning a mileage of 27.3 km/l.
The Jazz was a fun to drive, spacious and a expensive hatchback from Honda India in its previous generation, which appealed to the enthusiasts but did not make quite the business case. Nonetheless, after sabbatical, the Japanese automaker is now making a grand comeback to the market retaining two of the aforementioned attributes. Honda has surely learned its lesson and has not only added more local content on the premium hatchback that will aid in a competitive pricing but has also made the Jazz its most fuel efficient vehicle to go on sale in the country, returning an ARAI certified mileage of 27.3 km/l.
Just a shade below the Maruti Celerio diesel’s fuel efficiency figure (27.62 km/l), the 2015 Honda Jazz certainly offers more performance than the Suzuki vehicle and is a major leap over its predecessor. Using the same India specific 1.5-litre Earth Dreams i-DTEC diesel engine under the hood, the motor is tuned to produce 100 PS of power at 3600 RPM and 200 Nm of torque at 1750 RPM and is paired to a 6-speed manual gearbox. Coming to the petrol version, Honda is being kind to enthusiasts and has tuned the 1.2-litre i-VTEC petrol mill to produce 90 PS at 6000 RPM and 110 Nm of torque at 4800 RPM, paired to 5-speed manual and CVT transmission options. On par with competition, the Jazz petrol returns an ARAI certified 18.7 km/l on the manual variant while the automatic is even more fuel efficient returning 19 km/l.
Honda states that it has been able to improve the fuel economy figure by making changes to the offset oil supply crankshaft, eccentric groove main bearing and the thermostat for sensing outlet water temperature and the use of low viscosity oil. Furthermore, the gear ratios are longer on the Jazz diesel’s 6-speed gearbox, which aid in achieving the higher fuel efficiency figure. In comparison, its biggest competitor the Hyundai Elite i20 diesel returns an ARAI certified figure of 22.54 km/l.
In addition, the all-new Honda Jazz gets a world first diesel engine for the Indian market, with the automaker not selling a diesel variant in Europe or any other market. Even the units exported from Honda’s Tapukara facility are petrol versions. Honda has confirmed that the 1.5-litre petrol engine equipped Jazz won’t be launched in the country. With the official launch on 8th July, the 2015 Jazz is expected to be priced around the Rs. 4.95 lakh mark (ex-showroom), costlier than the Amaze sedan. Honda did say that given the customer profile being different on both models, there won’t be any cannibalisation of sales between both the models.
