Japanese auto giant Honda Cars India(HCIL) on Thursday (March 16) launched one of its most anticipated cars, the cross-hatch WR-V at a starting price of Rs 7.75 lakh. Based on the Honda Jazz platform, the car is developed in its Indian R&D centre.
“WR-V shows our commitments for the Indian market. It continues to remain one of our most important market,” Noriake Abe, COO, Regional Operations (Asia & Oceania), Honda Motor.
However, Abe added that the year 2016 was challenging for the company in the domestic market. “Demonetisation and cash crunch impacted business,” said Abe, adding that from February sales are picking up.
Honda is also expecting to bring volumes from this car. “So far there have been 1000 bookings for the car and we expect it to grow in future,” Yoichiro Ueno, president and CEO at HCIL said.
At present, capacity utilisation of the car is around 3,000 which will go up depending on the demand of the car, the company officials said. Honda also said that they are happy with the sales performance of the new Honda City which was launched last month.
The design and features of the car were developed with the help of Honda Japan's R&D, while the rest of the production inputs were made in India to suit the domestic conditions.
The car is powered by a 1.2L i-VTEC petrol engine and 1.5L i-DTEC diesel engine. The petrol engine sheds a power of 90 PS and 110 Nm of torque mated to a 5-speed gearbox whereas the diesel’s max power is 100 PS and 200 Nm of torque and is mated to 6-speed gearbox.
Honda Cars is offering the car on S and VX variants on both petrol and diesel engines. While the petrol version is available at Rs 7.75 lakh and Rs 8.99 lakh, the diesel variant is priced at Rs 8.79 lakh and Rs 9.99 lakh.
The main attraction of the car is its impressive mileage at 25.5 kmpl for diesel variant and 17.5 kmpl for petrol.
The vehicle will compete with the likes of Maruti Suzuki S-Cross and Hyundai i20 Active. WR-V is looking to make an impact on the fast growing compact SUV segment.
BW Reporters
The author is Senior Correspondent with BW Businessworld
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