Production capacity of all three models to be utilised by new SUV, half of which will be exported.
Honda will soon stop production of three of its ageing models – the Jazz, fourth-gen City and WR-V – in India. This would leave the Japanese carmaker with just two models in its India portfolio – the fifth-gen City and Amaze. However, a critical third model – a compact SUV (codename: 3US) – is set to join the range in 2023.
- Jazz, Gen 4 City to be axed by end 2022; WR-V in 2023
- New-gen Honda compact SUV to be launched in 2023
- 50 percent of compact SUV production will be exported
The Honda Jazz could be discontinued as early as November 2022, while the fourth-gen City will likely get axed by December this year. Meanwhile, the WR-V is likely to soldier on until at least March 2023. While Honda hasn’t released an official statement on the matter yet, a company insider has confirmed the news to Autocar India.
Three models at the end of their life cycle
It shouldn’t come as much of a shock that these three models will be getting axed as they’re all quite long in the tooth, at the end of their life cycles and no longer sell in the strong numbers they once did. The Gen 4 Honda City has been on sale since 2014 and was not discontinued even though its replacement, the Gen 5 model, came along in 2020. This generation of Honda Jazz, meanwhile, came the following year in 2015, and briefly went off sale with the advent of BS6 norms in April 2020, before returning as a petrol-only model in August that year.
The WR-V, meanwhile, which is based on the Jazz, is the newest of the bunch as it was launched in March 2017. The crossover will also be the last of the three to be axed, as it sells relatively better than the other two and is also Honda’s representative in the compact SUV segment for the time being.
New Honda compact SUV to utilise production capacity
The Honda WR-V will be succeeded by a more traditional compact SUV in 2023 that will be a more direct rival to the likes of the Tata Nexon, Hyundai Venue, Kia Sonet and Maruti Suzuki Brezza, our source has also confirmed. In fact, other than their age, the reason the aforementioned models are being discontinued is to free up production capacity for the new-generation model.
Our sources tell us that the Japanese carmaker’s plant in Tapukara, Rajasthan will transition over to produce the new compact SUV, with the goal that 50 percent of this capacity will be for domestic sales and the remaining being exported. Additionally, we have learnt that Honda will compensate its components suppliers for any losses they might incur as a result of the discontinuation of the three models.
The new compact SUV will be based on the Amaze’s platform, and as such, will likely use the same powertrains too – the 1.2 i-VTEC petrol and 1.5 i-DTEC diesel, the latter giving it an advantage in a segment increasingly moving towards petrol. As with the Amaze, it could have another feather in its cap in the form of CVT automatic options for both engines.
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