Better late than never, that’s the thought at Honda in bringing the tenth generation Civic to India after it is already past the mid-point of its lifecycle. The company plans to have a localisation level of 68% for the C-segment sedan, as per a new report from carandbike.
The fifth generation Honda CR-V that went on sale last month has a localisation level of 65%, and it still has a hefty INR 28.15 lakh* starting price. So, with a tad higher localisation, it is unlikely that the tenth generation Honda Civic will have an aggressive pricing. The report does not mention whether the localisation it talks about is in terms of the number of components or their value, but our safe bet is on the latter.
The 2019 Honda Civic will reach India in CKD kits imported from the Ayutthaya plant in Thailand. The assembly of these CKD kits will take place at the Greater Noida plant, although even the Tapukara plant (Rajasthan) is capable of handling the assembly.
“We had upgraded our Greater Noida based production facility before we started the production of the 2018 Honda CR-V to accommodate new models. The assembly lines at both of our plants (Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh and Tapukara, Rajasthan) are flexible and we can produce multiple models on them,” a Honda spokesperson has said.
The eighth generation Honda Civic didn’t survive the pressure of the growing demand for diesel engine-powered cars in its segment, as it was a petrol/petrol-electric hybrid-only model. The tenth generation model is coming with a diesel engine option, though. It will share the 1.6-litre i-DTEC single-turbo diesel engine with the fifth-gen Honda CR-V. This unit produces 120 PS and 300 Nm of torque. Unlike the diesel SUV, which is available with a 9-speed automatic transmission optionally, the diesel sedan will come with a 6-speed manual transmission as standard.
The expected petrol engine option is the 1.8-litre i-VTEC naturally aspirated unit that develops 141 PS and 174 Nm of torque. It will likely send drive to the wheels via a CVT.
Also Read: Next-gen Honda Vezel (Honda HR-V) to get new platform & SUV-coupe variant
The 2019 Honda Civic could cost somewhere around INR 16 lakh (ex-showroom) onwards.
2019 Honda Civic (facelift) - Image Gallery
[Source: carandbike.com]
