Honda City Hybrid to launch in India next year: Will offer more power & mileage

Honda launched the all-new City earlier this year in the Indian market. The all-new mid-size sedan currently offers both petrol and diesel engine options. Honda is now working on launching the hybrid version of the City that is expected to be launched in the Indian market next year. Here are the details.

According to ACI, Honda will launch the new City Hybrid next year and it will not be anything like the current breed of hybrids that we get with the Maruti Suzuki cars and MG Hector. Honda’s e:HEV hybrid system is different from the mild hybrid systems that work by charging a battery and then using that energy to assist the engine while accelerating. Honda’s hybrid system is much more involving that. In e:HEV system, the electric motor powers the wheels while the petrol engine assists, which ensures greater fuel savings.

The hybrid technology that will power the all-new Honda City is similar to the one that is available with the Honda Jazz in the international markets. It is called i-MMD hybrid set-up and it has two electric motors combined with the 1.5-litre petrol engine. The Atkinson cycle petrol engine generates a maximum power of 98 PS and peak torque of 127 Nm.

Also read: Honda”s chief designer talks about spaciousness of the all-new City sedan on video

One of the electric motors is integrated into the petrol engine. It also works as an integrated starter-generator (ISG). The second electric motor sends power to the wheels. It generates a maximum of 109 PS and 235 Nm of peak torque. It uses a bespoke fixed-gear ratio to send power to the front wheels. The same technology in the all-new Jazz returns more than 38 km/l according to the Japanese testing rules.

The hybrid motor of the Honda City may also come with three driving modes where the drivers can choose between pure electric and pure petrol engine power. The third mode will allow the car to choose power between the hybrid system and the petrol engine as per the demand. However, since it is not a plug-in hybrid, customers would not be able to charge the car to recharge the battery. It will have to be driven around to charge the batteries for the hybrid system.

The hybrid system may get launched with the City RS, which is a high-performance version of the car in the international markets. It comes with a few design tweaks to make it look lively and much different from the regular Honda City.

Honda is expected to launch the all-new City Hybrid by the middle of next year. Since the technology used in the car is so much more advanced than the Ciaz, expect a price tag, which is likely to cross the top-end version of the regular, non-hybrid City. So the price of the hybrid version can be expected to be around Rs 15 lakhs and in all probability, there will be a single variant of the car available in the Indian market.

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