All-new Honda Jazz to skip India: Here’s why

Honda Jazz, which kickstarted the premium hatchback segment in India has been revealed in an all-new avatar at the Tokyo Motor Show. While the markets around the world will receive the updated Jazz soon, the Indian market will continue to sell the current version of the Honda Jazz.

According to ACI, Honda Car India will not launch the all-new Jazz in the Indian market due to the extremely low demand for the hatchback at present. Honda sells less than 1,000 units of the Jazz in the Indian market at present. It is a mass segment car and there are not many takers of the premium hatchback in the Indian market. The all-new Jazz is based on an all-new platform, which will mean a lot of changes will have to be made to the assembly line to manufacture the all-new vehicle. This is why the company has decided to skip the vehicle.

It should be noted that Honda earlier discontinued the Jazz from the Indian market due to the low popularity. The global second-generation of the Honda Jazz was first introduced in the Indian market in 2009. However, due to the low demand, Honda discontinued it in 2013. Later, the all-new, third-generation was introduced in 2015. With the launch of the third-generation Jazz, Honda priced it competitively with a larger percentage of locally built parts used in the vehicle. However, it still did not become as successful as Honda expected in the Indian market.

This is not the first time that Honda will skip a generation of the vehicle in the Indian market. Earlier this year, Honda launched the all-new Honda Civic, which was launched after skipping the ninth-generation model of the vehicle in the Indian market. In the future, Honda may bring the all-new Jazz after assessing the demand in the market.

The all-new Jazz comes with a lot of high-tech advanced features that allow the designers to make it look different. For example, the body structure of the all-new model is quite complex, which ensures a slim A-Pillars in the vehicle. The all-new Jazz looks very different from the current-generation, which is on sale in the Indian market. However, Honda may extend the life of the current vehicle in the Indian market by launching a facelifted model and may also bring in a few changes inspired by the all-new Jazz to the Indian model.

The Jazz currently meets all the standards laid out by the Indian government including the pedestrian safety standards that came into effect recently. Honda has already announced that they will continue to offer the diesel engine options in the Indian market even after the BS6 standards are implemented. Honda may just launch a facelifted model with an upgraded engine to keep the hatchback fresh in the market for a few more years in the Indian market.