New 2013 Honda CR-V SUV launch in India on Feb 12

Honda is ready to launch the all-new 2013 Honda CR-V in India on February 12, 2012. The vehicle will be offered with a choice of two petrol engines – a 2 litre and a 2.4 litre engine and four variants. This CR-V will be assembled in India through completely-knocked down kits, which should make it slightly cheaper compared to the model it replaces.

Honda India is already teasing images of the new Honda CR-V on its website. The SUV has been spotted testing in various locations so far. The top-end CR-V is a 2.4 litre 4×4 featuring an electric sun roof, paddle shifts, and navigation system as standard. The base variant will be a manual transmission, 2-litre version, while all the other three are automatics.

The new Honda CRV is ready for launch and will compete with vehicles such as the Mitsubishi Outlander in the petrol SUV space, as well as the Hyundai Santa Fe and Renault Koleos in the diesel space. At the moment, the market for petrol SUVs is shrinking with the CR-V not selling any units in the past three months. It last sold three units in September and 47 units in August 2012. Also read: Upcoming all-new cars for 2013

Even though Honda has a diesel engine in the CR-V line up internationally, it won’t make sense bringing the diesel variant to India right now as it would take prices of the Honda CR-V to over Rs. 30 lakh, making it quite unviable. It will continue to be offered with the 2-litre (two-wheel drive) petrol engine putting out better power of 154 bhp at 6500 rpm and 190 Nm of torque at 4300 rpm, and this variant will get a six-speed manual transmission. The 2.4 litre petrol engine (in the all-wheel drive model) puts out 188 bhp of power at 7000 rpm and 226 Nm of torque at 4400 rpm with a five-speed automatic transmission. Also read: Upcoming diesel cars for India in 2013

The new Honda CR-V has an all new design, with more chrome added on – a trend that’s been catching on with SUVs in that segment. The headlamps are twin-beams with a projector for the low beam as well as daytime running lamps, while the rear gets a Volvo-inspired sloping roof with towering tail-lamps. The vehicle is slightly longer and wider than the existing CR-V, which should make it more spacious.

Honda has pulled out all details of the CR-V from its website for now, and is only teasing the picture of the new Honda CR-V, in the run up to its launch. Although the Honda CR-V is a good handling, comfortable SUV, the poor fuel economy that the older model gave of under 10 kmpl on petrol and lack of hard core off-roading potential (as it’s essentially a soft-roader) isn’t really going to help the new model sell any better than the older one did. Honda claims a tested mileage of 13.7 kmpl on the 2-litre variant and 12 kmpl on the 2.4 litre variant of the new CR-V.  The Honda CR-V is a vehicle Honda needs to keep in its portfolio to satisfy the few who want it – but the volumes are not large enough to justify huge investments for complete local production.

We’ll keep you posted on the developments with the Honda CR-V. Also read: 3 Suvs to look forward to in 2013