Honda launches new City in diesel, petrol variants

Honda Cars India today launched its fourth generation sedan ‘City’, in both petrol and diesel variants.

The City diesel is priced between Rs 8.62 and Rs 11.10 lakh, while the petrol version is priced in the range of Rs 7.42-10.90 lakh, ex-Navi Mumbai.

The carmaker, a subsidiary of Japanese auto giant Honda Motor Co Ltd, has received 9,400 bookings so far, a company official said.

“The year 2013 witnessed Honda’s exceptional growth with our first diesel offering, the Amaze. With the best of both diesel and petrol technologies available in the City, we are confident about the success of the model which will significantly contribute to our business growth in the country,” Honda Cars India president and chief executive Hironori Kanayama said.

With the launch of the new City, the company aims to regain its segment leadership which it had lost after it discontinued third generation City some time back.

The fourth generation sedan was unveiled globally on November 25 last year.

The petrol variant of the new City comes with the existing 1.5 litre iVTEC engine, while the diesel version sports the recently launched 1.5 iDTEC diesel motor.

Honda Cars senior vice-president for sales and marketing Jnaneswar Sen, said of the 9,400 bookings, 70 per cent are for the diesel variant, adding going forward the ratio between petrol and diesel variant will come down.

The company had launched the first-generation City in the country in 1998 and has so far sold 4.3 lakh units. In 2012-13, the company sold 73,000 units and is targeting to market 1.2 lakh cars this financial year on the back of new launches.