Friday, October 19, 2012
By Manoj Kumawat
Honda Brio likely to take South African route
Honda Brio will soon be joining the league of popular made in India cars which are receiving an overwhelming response from the buyers in the overseas market including the likes of Maruti A Star, Hyundai i10, Tata Indica Vista and Toyota Etios Liva. The Japanese auto giant is all set to debut their Brio model in the South African market very soon. The South African unit of the company has confirmed that the new Brio will be launched in the country in December 2012.
At present, Honda Brio is manufactured in Indian and Thai markets, but made in India cars are more likely to be dispatched to the South African market due to their lower manufacturing cost, Inventory accumulation due to increasing prices of petrol. However, it is still not confirm that from which country the car will be sourced to South Africa, between India and Thailand.
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The South African version of the car will come powered by the same 1.2 L i-VTEC engine, which delivers a peak power of 88 PS along with a peak torque of 88 PS @ 6000 rpm along with a peak torque of 109 Nm @ 4600 rpm. Similar to the Indian market, the Honda Brio is expected to the launched in South Africa in manual transmission initially, which will be followed by an automatic transmission version, later on.
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Meanwhile, the Indian unit of Honda Motors is likely to launch Honda Brio based sedan in diesel in the Indian market next year, which could well be company’s first ever diesel run car in the emerging markets like India. The addition of diesel version in the Brio line-up will further enable this range to compete more promptly with the competitors like Maruti Swift and Ritz, Ford Figo, Chevrolet Beat, Volkswagen Polo, Fiat Punto, Renault Pulse and Nissan Micra.
