If all goes as planned, India will see the fuel-efficient Honda Civic Hybrid Car introduced in its market next year. Pegged at around Rs 20 lakh, the hybrid car will belong to the Honda Siel stable, the Indian arm of Honda Motor Company that sells Honda City, Honda Civic, Honda Accord and Honda CR-V in the country. Industry insiders reveal that the hybrid civics will be brought to the domestic market as completely built up units (CBUs).
At the moment, the Honda Siel Car India feels the potential numbers does not encourage putting up a special unit to mass-manufacture the Civic hybrid. The Honda Civic Hybrid Cars is learnt to be highly fuel-efficient and the battery gets charged automatically while the car is in use. A combustion engine and an electric motor generated by battery will alternately drive the car. The choice of fuel to be used will be computer-controlled.
It’s the heavy import tax being levied on the Honda Civic Hybrid Car that’s caused its price to shoot up significantly. The petrol model of the Honda Civic, that manufactured at Honda’s plant located in Greater Noida costs around Rs 12 – Rs 13 lakh. In comparison with the petrol version which turns out a 130bhp, the hybrid model gives around 110bhp. The Honda Company is further planning to launch the small car Honda Jazz in India in 2009.
