Honda India has made a few changes to the City range including the 4th gen model which is sold alongside the current-gen model. The SV variant of the 4th gen City now comes with a 7-inch touchscreen infotainment system which was exclusive to the top-end variant. Interestingly, prices remain unchanged for this variant. The 5th gen City sees some feature deletions like the 16-inch spare alloy wheel being replaced by 15-inch steel units.
Additionally, the base variant no longer gets front and rear mudguards as standard and the chrome door handles are replaced by black handles. Other than this, none of the models will get the variant badges such as V, VX, and ZX on the boot. From now onwards, only the recently launched City e:HEV will get a badge on the boot. This move has been made to cut down on the costs.
Honda City E:HEV: A brief recap
Honda recently launched the City Hybrid at ₹19.49 lakh. The City E:HEV is around ₹4.5 lakh more expensive than the top-end City ZX petrol CVT. Bookings for the sedan are already underway and deliveries should also begin soon. The City hybrid is currently the cheapest ‘strong hybrid’ that you can buy today and it comes in one fully-loaded ZX trim. The City hybrid not just brings in a new powertrain, but also many exterior and equipment changes.
The Honda City Hybrid is fitted with a 1.5L petrol engine paired with a dual electric motor, the car produces 126PS of max power and 253Nm of peak torque. Alone this 1.5L engine produces 98hp of max power and 127Nm of torque. The City Hybrid claims to deliver 26.5 km/l which is the best in the segment. The Honda City Hybrid uses Honda’s i-MMD hybrid technology which is also used by the other Honda cars in their global portfolio.
The hybrid setup enables three drive modes – one where just the electric motors are used, one where just the internal combustion engine runs (a lock-up clutch sends power to the wheels directly), and a third which allows for a combination of both. The City Hybrid comes with ADAS features a part of the Honda Sensing Suite. It comes with a Collision mitigation system, road departure mitigation, auto high beam, lane keep assist, and adaptive cruise control