Upcoming Honda HR-V SUV: Watch how it performs in a Moose Test [Video]

The Honda HR-V, also known as the Vezel in several international markets, is expected to be launched in India by the end of this year or later. When launched, it will sit between the Honda BR-V and CR-V SUV. Honda is likely to market it as a small but premium vehicle that will seat five passengers. A few months back, the HR-V was reportedly shown to Indian dealers with the prospect of bringing the vehicle to India. Below is a video by km77.com of the crossover-SUV undergoing the moose test. Check out the video to see how the Honda HR-V performs in this test.

For the uninitiated, the Moose test is basically a way to check the stability of the vehicle along with checking how fastly the car can manoeuvre when doing emergency direction changes. As seen in the video, the driver swerves a moving car into left direction and then immediately to the opposite direction and checks if the car skids, flips or if the steering is fully under control. The test is designed to replicate an emergency direction change manoeuvre and check if the vehicle is stable enough. A somewhat similar case in real-world would be an animal that suddenly comes onto the road, directly in the path of a car travelling at high speed.

Talking about the BR-V’s moose test here, the SUV is driven at 78 km/h in the first part of the video. According to the testers, the HR-V had several unpredictable movements that forced the driver to make some corrections with the steering wheel. As can be clearly seen in the video, after the second abrupt change of trajectory, the rear axle slips quite a bit which results in knocking down of cones. However, this was not repeated again in successive passes as the driver now knew how the car behaved. The testes also noted that at a higher speed, the reactions of the HR-V were practically identical to those obtained in previous passes, that is, safe and easy to control.

Talking about the Honda HR-V, it is a popular compact SUV in many South-East Asian markets and is sold with two petrol engine options internationally. Both of them are naturally aspirated 4 cylinder units. The 1.5-litre motor makes 129 Bhp of peak power while the 1.8-litre petrol, borrowed from the Civic, makes 138 Bhp. Both engines get manual and CVT automatic gearbox options. The front-wheel-drive crossover SUV could also get a diesel engine when brought to India, though nothing can be confirmed as of yet. Since it will sit between the BR-V and the CR-V in India, expect its price range to be in between Rs. 15 to Rs. 20 lakhs.