Honda readying very small car for India in 2010

Honda plans to launch its premium hatchback car, the Jazz in India in 2009 – but the company has said that they are moving towards a launch date for a five-seater small car. A really small car. It is expected that the car would debut by the beginning of year 2010.

Really small, for Honda, would mean something the size of a Santro or Indica, we think. The Honda Jazz which will be launched in 2009 is itself a premium hatchback that is larger than other hatchbacks in India. This new small car will be even smaller.

Honda has always priced its cars a little more than comparable cars – and the Indian car market has always been willing to pay extra for the brand name and rock-solid reliability. So do not expect a car that will be as cheap as the Santro – but it will be a really good small car, and quaitywise and price-wise, a bit higher than other small cars in India.

Honda Jazz small carin 2009, another small car in 2010

In fact, we had talked about a potential small car from Honda other than the Honda Jazz in July 2007 in a story.

It makes sense for Honda though to look at the really small car market. Currently we have the Chevrolet Spark, Suzuki Zen Estilo, WagonR, Alto, Hyundai i10 and Santro, Fiat Palio the small hatchback car market. Almost all of them are a bit old apart from the i10. Another small car that is expected to set the Indian small car market alight is the Suzuki A-Star (new Alto). The success of the i10, a worldwide trend towards smaller cars, and the success of good-looking modern small cars in India would be reason enough for Honda to develop a small car for India.

Honda is in fact planning to launch the small car in Europe as well as emerging countries such as China and India in the early 2010, said a company official. It is expected that the new Honda small car might be even smaller than the Fit subcompact made by the company.

In fact, the small car that Honda is making will be than the smallest version of the Fit and is expected to come with an engine displacement of less than a litre. This in reality is less than the 1.3 litre engine sported by the smallest version of the Fit subcompact series.

Doing a Nano-sized small car, though, would be unthinkable for Honda. The company is not exactly a player in the ultra low cost market anywhere in the world, and it is unlikely even the potential success of the Nano would make them want to go that far. But a premium small car, yes, thats more like Honda.

Honda sources said that the small hatchback car, targeted mainly at the booming Indian car market, is said to be designed by a research team in Japan.

The Honda small car which will debut in India would be initially rolled out from a plant in north India. Incidentally, Honda is not the only car maker who is lining up small cars. Industry sources suggest that automotive giants such as General Motors are also in the process of making a global small car. GM in fact is eyeing design inputs from India for its edition of the small car, and is expected to roll out the vehicle by the second half of year 2009.