Honda Civic OUTSELLS Elantra, Corolla and Octavia

Honda launched the all-new Civic in March this year and the dispatch numbers of the car showed its extreme popularity in the segment. However, last month, the dispatch numbers have come down to only 369 units from the 2,291 units in March. Even with the new dispatch data, the Honda Civic remains ahead of the competitors like Skoda Octavia, Toyota Corolla and Hyundai Elantra.

The all-new tenth-generation Honda Civic was launched in March and made its comeback to the Indian market after long seven years. The all-new Civic is available in both petrol and diesel engine options. Since Honda started accepting the bookings in February, a large number of bookings were reported by the brand. As reported by Honda, they received as many as 2,400 bookings in just 40 days, indicating the popularity of the Civic nameplate in India. It is quite possible that after completing the delivery of the initial bookings, the sales have settled down and in the future, it will hover around the same number.

In the same period, Skoda sold 227 units of the Octavia making it the second-best selling vehicle in the segment. Toyota dispatched a total of 177 units of the Corolla and Hyundai dispatched a total of 85 units in the same period. Even with the new sales figures, the Civic remains on the top of the charts in the D-Segment sedan segment outselling all the competitors.

It should be noted that Honda Civic is the most expensive product in the segment. The base variant of the Honda Civic is priced at Rs 17.69 lakhs while the top-end version of the all-new sedan is priced at Rs 22.29 lakhs, prices are ex-showroom. Comparing the prices with the competitors, Hyundai Elantra gets a starting base price of Rs 13.81 lakh, Skoda Octavia gets a base price of Rs 15.99 lakh and Toyota Corolla Altis starts at Rs 15.70 lakh in the market. The Corolla Altis remained the best-selling vehicle in the segment for a long time but it is currently at the third position on the sales chart.

The Honda Civic is positioned as a premium vehicle and is targeted at the current owners of Honda City who want to upgrade to a sedan. For the first time in the Indian market, Honda is also offering the diesel engine option with the Civic. The diesel variants of the Honda Civic get the 1.6-litre, four-cylinder engine that also powers the all-new Honda CR-V in the Indian market. It generates a maximum power of 118 Bhp and peak torque of 300 Nm. All the diesel engine powered variants only get a 6-speed manual transmission. The petrol variants are powered by a 1.8-litre naturally aspirated engine that generates a maximum power of 139 Bhp and peak torque of 174 Nm. All the petrol variants only get the 7-stepped CVT transmission with standard paddle shifters.