Honda Mobilio Diesel MPV spotted ahead of July launch

The Honda Mobilio MPV will be launched in India during July. A diesel variant of the MPV was spotted on Indian roads, in what seems to be a car that is heading to a dealership as a display or test drive model. Honda will also offer the Mobilio with a petrol heart.

While manual gearboxes are a given, on both the petrol and diesel engined versions of the Mobilio, the petrol engined model could also gain a CVT automatic gearbox as that would be a major differentiating factor in the MPV segment, which currently does not offer an automatic variant across various brands.

The Mobilio is likely to be priced and positioned in between the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga and the Toyota Innova MPVs. Larger than the Ertiga but smaller than the Innova, this kind of positioning will allow Honda to straddle two segments and target a wider range of buyers.

Based on the Honda Brio platform, the Mobilio is expected to be heavily localized, a factor that will give Honda enough breathing space to price the MPV competitively. The Mobilio will roll out of Honda’s Greater Noida factory, off New Delhi, with trial production having already commenced.

The Mobilio is a 7 seat MPV with a 2+3+2 seating layout with front facing seats. The petrol engine of the MPV is a 1.5 liter i-VTEC unit (117 Bhp-146 Nm), which also does duty on the 2014 Honda City. The diesel engine is a 1.5 liter i-DTEC unit (98.6 Bhp-200 Nm), which also powers the likes of the Amaze and City sedans.

Expect prices of the Mobilio to start from about 6.3 lakh rupees for the base petrol variant, and about 7.5 lakh rupees for the base diesel variant. Honda is looking to sell a little under 4,000 units of the Mobilio each month. Achieving this number will put the Mobilio’s sales in between that of the Ertiga’s and Innova’s, another hint at the Mobilio’s in-between positioning.

Images courtesy SwapnilMhaske on Facebook