Honda small car concept for Auto Expo 2010

We were a little doubtful about this earlier, but Honda has now confirmed that they would be bringing a new small car concept for India at the 2010 Auto Expo.

This will be a global unveiling of the Honda small car concept 2CV (as some call it) as the car will be available in other global markets with an appetite for little cars too.

The new car will be smaller that Honda’s smallest car in India, the premium hatchback Honda Jazz. (Scroll down to the bottom of this story for more Auto Expo stories.)

Honda’s cars have always been positioned in India at a premium to comparable cars. The manufacturer enjoys enormous brand equity in India, and it is expected that the new small car too would be positioned as a high quality hatchback car, and won’t be a pure econo-box. Of course, it would be an econo-box by international standards, but that does not matter in India. There are rumours that the car is powered by a 1100 cc engine and is internally referred to as the 2CV.

The actual launch of the Honda small car is expected only by early 2011.

Another company which is bringing in a small car is Toyota, with its unveiling of the concept Entry Family car at the 2010 Expo. Both these small cars are expected to be serious crowd-pullers at the Auto Expo 2010, starting in the first week of January 2010.

The final design of the Honda small car which we will see at Auto Expo 2010 will doubtless undergo serious changes before production – but it will still be interesting to see Honda’s take on the small car for emerging nations, which are the fastest growing auto markets in the world right now.

Also interesting to see will be how small is small, for Honda. It definitely won’t be a Tata Nano-sized car – but on paper, both the Hyundai i10 and the Honda Jazz are small cars – so exactly what size would it be?

Honda does not seem to have any high impact launches planned for the Auto Expo 2010, however. The company has announced that they will bringing their robot ASIMO and the CR-Z hybrid concept car. Many are hoping for diesel versions of the Honda City and CR-V, and a more powerful version of the Jazz to be launched.