Hero MotoCorp marketed the Splendor iSmart by claiming its fuel efficiency to be 102.5 km/l and rival Honda has lashed out at the former for claiming such ‘misleading’ figures.
In a booming market where there is a lot of competition, there are going to be instances where we witness some sparks flying between rife rivals. Hero Honda was India’s top two-wheeler company but then a few years back both the partners parted ways and now we have Hero MotoCorp and Honda serving separately. Hero launched the Splendor iSmart in the Indian market last year and recently claimed the bike’s USP to be its mind-numbing fuel efficiency of 102.5 km/l which, up to an extent, is too good to be true. Honda has hit back by disputing Hero’s claim about this high mileage and has said that such figures are difficult to achieve in real life.
So here goes the story. The engine that powers the Splendor iSmart was actually developed by Honda and hence the Japanese firm does have some know-how on its performance. Honda has said that having used that engine and knowing its capabilities, it is highly unlikely that the powerplant would give out such claimed figures. Hero MotoCorp, in turn has claimed that they have made a lot of significant changes to the engine and optimised it in such a way that it does give out the said figures. Hero has also gone on to the extent of saying that the mileage has been tested by iCAT (International Centre for Automotive Technology) and challenging its results would mean challenging the standards and regulations of the government of India and the law of the land.
Hero MotoCorp has stated that the mileage has increased significantly with the help of the start-stop system which switches off the engine when the bike is idling and automatically turns it on with the press of the clutch. Honda feels that manufacturers should not give out such exaggerated figures which are not really achieved by customers in real life and can be produced only under controlled conditions. It is common across most car and bike companies to give out exaggerated figures, especially of fuel efficiency to lure in buyers and this practice needs to be controlled.
Honda might be feeling the heat as there is not a single bike of the Japanese firm in the top 10 list of most fuel efficient 2-wheelers in India. Meanwhile, we too tested the Splendor iSmart to see if it returns anywhere close to the claimed mileage figure and we managed to extract almost 99 km/l, not far from Hero’s claimed number. But the tests done by us were in close to ideal conditions, we being extremely cautious with the throttle, a scenario difficult to replicate in day to day riding. Meanwhile read our mileage test of the Hero Splendor iSmart HERE.
