Thursday, December 24, 2020
By Kamal Swami
Honda Discontinues Civic And CR-V In India
Honda Cars India Limited, the Indian alliance of Japanese carmaker Honda Motors has discontinued the luxurious sedan Civic and the compact SUV CR-V in the Indian car market. According to the recent reports, the carmaker has completely stopped the production of these vehicles at its production unit located in Greater Noida. The company has now moved its production activities to its Tapukara plant, where it is manufacturing cars like City, Jazz, WR-V and Amaze.
Commenting on the decision of discontinuing the production of Civic and CR-V, Mr Gaku Nakanishi, President & CEO, Honda Cars India Limited said, "Despite an uptick in sales in the last three months, the current market conditions remain unpredictable for the industry at large. The impact of Covid-19 has pressed us to strengthen our constitution and to achieve the same, HCIL has decided to consolidate its manufacturing operations by making the Tapukara plant a unified manufacturing base.”
Under the hood, the Civic is empowered with a 1.8-litre i-VTEC petrol engine with a CVT automatic transmission system and boosting the power of 141 PS and the torque of 174Nm. There is an option of 1.6-litre i-DTEC turbo-diesel engine churning the power of 120 PS and the torque of 300Nm and mated with a six-speed manual gear transmission system. At present, the luxurious sedan is being sold at a cash discount up to Rs. 2.50 lakh. This facility will be applicable till December 31, 2020.
According to the sources of the company to maintain the proper balance between the cost of production and the demand of vehicles, Honda Cars India Limited has decided to restrict its production activities only to Tapukara production unit in Rajasthan. This production unit will be now used for manufacturing the vehicles for both the domestic market and the International market.
Moving ahead, Mr Nakanishi, said, that HCIL is concerned about the resilience of the Indian economy and believes that the condition of the market will improve soon. He also added that the Indian car market is important as a part of the company’s global strategy and committed to launch the vehicles equipped with advanced features including the electric vehicles.
