In January, when the Indian subsidiary of Japanese car maker Honda India launched the new City sedan, Hyundai got cautious and announced that it will be launching a new CX variant for the Verna.
Recently, Hyundai launched the Verna CX along with a variant rejig to the whole Verna line up in order to lure buyers. Even after this exercise, the new Honda City has managed to outsell the Korean competitor and regain the numero uno position it enjoyed.
With the soaring petrol prices and lack of a diesel heart, the Honda City was slowly loosing its sales to the Hyundai Verna, which comes with 2 diesel engine options. But with the introduction of the Earth Dreams 1.5 liter diesel engine, the new Honda City has managed to outsell the Verna by a huge margin of 3500 units for two months in a row.
In the first two months since it’s launch, the new City has managed to find 14,397 new homes, where as, the Verna managed only 7,145, The Honda sales are double compared to the Hyundai.
“City’s position in the segment in petrol was never disputed but we suffered because we did not have a diesel engine. We are happy to see the huge demand for the all new City where we have introduced a diesel engine as well,” said Jnaneswar Sen, senior vice-president, marketing and sales, Honda Cars India Ltd.
The new Honda City, in its diesel avatar, has a ARAI certified fuel efficiency of 26 kmpl. The 1.5 liter diesel engine is mated to a 6 speed manual transmission. The petrol engine is the same 1.5 liter i-VTEC with some minor revisions.
Source: HT