Honda India's focus until the end of 2013 will be on the two mini cars - City and Brio - sources privy to the developments in the Japanese car company recently informed IndianAutosBlog.com.
Honda's lined up variants of the these two cars to maintain footfalls at dealers as diesel variants of its global C- and D-Platform vehicles are unavailable at this time.
Honda is likely to start the onslaught with an automatic transmission avatar of the Brio during the festival season, and introduce the CNG variant of the City that set off into Thailand last week. These two vehicles may not significantly improve numbers, but they cater to segments that have far too few players or options.
Diesel variants of the Brio and City are likely to reach dealers in 2013, the former will be strapped with a 1.2L four-cylinder diesel engine and could be sold as the smallest member of the EarthDreams Technology, while the latter could gain a more powerful motor to fight away the Rapid and Verna.
Platform wise, the Brio is certainly going to be used to design a new compact MPV in 2014. A compact sedan to compete for the market share of the Etios and Swift Dzire is reportedly under development for a late 2013 launch.
Honda is also conducting trials of the XC60-like CR-V in India, and sources say that a diesel engine is not on test. The launch date is unclear at this moment, but we don't see anything wrong with introducing it during Diwali as a brand builder.
