Honda Jazz India launch soon

Honda Siel will unveil its new hatchback model Honda Jazz in the middle of this year. The company will be releasing the premium hatchback car somewhere in the late summer around June-July this year. The Honda Jazz will be the cheapest car in Honda’s Indian portfolio. Honda expects that the launch of a small hatchback car positioned below the all-new Honda City would help its boost sales in India. Small car segment cover two thirds of the sales of cars in India.

The Honda Jazz has been rumoured about for an Indian for more than two years now. The company had displayed the car around the time of last year’s Auto Expo in select car dealerships in India to get customer feedback. The response was overwhelmingly positive, we hear.

When the Honda Jazz finally comes to dealerships, it would be competing against the recently launched Hyundai i20 premum small car, and possibly against the upcoming Fiat Grande Punto, and the new Skoda Fabia variants.

The Honda Jazz gets safety features like airbags, ABS (anti-lock braking system) and G-CON Technology (Honda’s occupant survival zone tech). It is quite large inside, and actual interior space is likely to be more than the competing premium small cars in India.

Honda is likely to price the Jazz above its competitors though – the Honda brand carries enormous weight in India, and the company has always priced its products above its competitors’ and still managed to sell in larger numbers. “The Jazz will be a premium segment hatchback and we do not expect that it will overcome the sales numbers of the City sedan in India,” said Honda representative Masahiro Takedagawa. While we hear a price tag of Rs 5-6 lakhs for the Jazz, it might be quite higher than that for the top end versions with all luxury features. The Jazz is priced higher than the City in many foreign markets, including Thailand, but still manages to sell more, Takedagawa said.

“It will have an engine specifically made for the Indian market. We are looking at a June-July launch,” he added. No specs are available yet, but there is a chance that the vtec engines on offer in the old Honda City (recently discontinued sedan) might be offered in the Jazz. Some news sites have reported that it might be a 1200 cc engine especially developed for India.

The Honda Jazz will be assembled in the company’s Greater Noida facility, and 80% of the components will be locally sourced.

“We have studied the market and are quite confident about our selling abilities. In Thailand, the Jazz is priced higher than our City model,” said Jnaneswar Sen, vice-president (sales and marketing), HSCI. The City is Honda’s best-selling model in the country. However, in India, there is no chance that the Jazz would be priced above the all-new Honda City. There is just no market there – we say the top end Honda Jazz would be priced at least a lakh less than the Honda City on-road.