Next-gen Honda City sedan rendered

First introduced in 2014, the fourth generation Honda City sedan is due for a full model change next year. Paultan, a Malaysian automotive website, has come up with a speculative render showing what the fifth generation Honda City could look like. The renderer assumes that the new City sedan will have styling cues seen on the Honda Insight.

The next-gen car promises to become sharper looking while retaining the now-typical Honda front end styling. The car’s profile is expected to remain similar to what the current version sports. The rear of the new car is also expected to showcase a fresh new look, again with plenty of chrome as chrome means premium in India.

As is the case with the facelifted City, the new car will get full LED projector headlamps and daytime running lights. Since the Indian car market loves chrome, there will be dollops of chrome on the front end. The car is expected to gain a hybrid option on the 1.5 liter i-VTEC petrol engine. Such an option is already available on the JDM spec Honda Jazz. The 1.5 liter turbocharged diesel engine will continue but with engineering changes to make it Bharat Stage 6 emission norms compliant.

5 speed manual and CVT gearboxes will continue with the petrol, while the petrol hybrid engine is expected to be CVT-only. The diesel is also expected to retain the 6 speed manual gearbox. More than space on the inside, the already-spacious City is expected to get a lot of feature additions. The new model will continue to sit in the similar price band where it is presently.

This is because Honda is bringing the Civic to India and there needs to be sufficient price gap between the two cars. The new City will try to tempt Amaze buyers into upgrading. Existing City owners are expected to upgrade to the Civic, which is launching in India next year.