Jnaneswar Sen, Senior vice-president, sales and marketing, Honda Cars India, has confirmed to IndianAutosBlog in an email that the all new CR-V will be launched in India in the month of February. And he also mentioned that it will be available in petrol variant only.
The all-new Honda CR-V was revealed way back in its concept avatar at the 2011 Orange County International Auto Show in Anaheim, California. Later, we saw the production avatar at the 2011 LA Auto Show.
In a gist, the all new Honda CR-V is bigger, wider, has a more aggressive design and oodles of space inside. It has a refreshed interior with high quality plastics and tones of new tech.
Unlike the new Honda Civic which was bashed by the automotive press worldwide, prompting for a quick revision, the all new Honda CR-V was lauded for its real world practicality and simple engineering.
The all-new Honda CR-V has been testing in the northern parts of India since quite some time now. We were aware that it was supposed to be launched early this year. Unfortunately, we had no confirmation from the senior management at Honda. That is, until now!
Mr Sen also confirmed that the new CR-V will only be launched in its petrol avatar. So expect a 2.0-litre i-VTEC petrol engine with 155PS of power and 200Nm of torque to send power to its front wheels via a 5-speed manual gearbox.
What about the Diesel?
Honda India has confirmed in the past that the first ever diesel product for India will be the Honda Amaze. From Mr Sen’s short and crisp answer, we deduce that there are no plans to launch the diesel model anytime soon.
What about the Pricing?
Honda India has rationalized its pricing for existing models vis-à-vis the competition to compensate the lack of a diesel option.
There is a very good chance we could see an extremely competitive pricing for CR-V to give it a fighting chance against the competition. Rivalry should come from Hyundai SantaFe, BMW X1, Nissan X-trail, Chevrolet Captiva and the likes.
Stay tuned as we try to dig some more info.
