Honda Civic Hybrid in India at Rs 20 lakh

The imported CBU Civic Hybrids in India will be quite expensive, though.

August 8, 2007

Honda Civic hybrid cars may be launched in India next year. Though the price is not fixed, it is believed that the Honda Civic hybrid cars will cost about Rs 20 lakh in India.

The hybrid Civics will be imported as completely built up units (CBUs). Honda Siel, which sells Honda City, Honda Civic, Honda Accord and Honda CR-V in India does not feel the potential numbers do not justify setting up an assembly line to mass-manufacture the Civic hybrid.

Hybrid cars like the hybrid Civic and Toyota Prius use petrol and battery power alternately to make the best use of both. The selection of fuel is computer-controlled. The cars are highly fuel efficient and the battery is powered while the car is in motion. A combustion engine and an electric motor powered by battery alternately drive the car.

If the Honda Civic hybrid is launched in India next year, this will be the first hybrid car in India.

The petrol version of Honda Civic costs around Rs 12-13 lakh. The price tag on imported hybrid Honda Civic will be 60% higher at Rs 20 lakh. The high import duties in India -- currently over 100% -- make the car much more costly when imported from abroad.

Meanwhile, Toyota, which pioneered the hybrid car with the Toyota Prius in the 1990s, do not have any plans to introduce any model of Prius in India. So far, Prius has sold a million units in a decade of its existence. After Prius, General Motors and Honda have jumped into the eco-friendly green cars -- hybrid cars -- battle with their own models. While Toyota and GM launched entirely new brands - Prius and Volt -- Honda chose to stick to the established Civic and Accord brands for its hybrid car foray.

Environmental concerns have sparked growth in hybrid engine car sales in the last decade. Currently, Toyota is developing a new Lithium-Ion battery for its planned hybrid car models for 2011, which will use technology more advanced than the existing nickel-metal-hydride batteries used today. However, the delay in bringing out the new hybrid car battery technology is expected to help Honda and GM catch up with Toyota in the hybrid car game. The new technology will pack more power into a battery of the same size and weight.

Honda Siel is also planning to launch the small car Honda Jazz in India. The Jazz for India will have an engine smaller than the one currently in use in the Honda Jazz models abroad. The Jazz is expected to be launched in 2009. It will be manufactured entirely in India.