Honda seeks to up market share with Civic sedan

Pune: Honda, the Japanese car giant on Thursday launched its iconic and the much awaited all-new Honda Civic sedan to boost sales in the highly competitive world's fifth and Asia's third biggest car market.

With a price tag starting from Rs 17.70 lakh at pan India showroom, the 10th generation Honda Civic will compete against established rivals like the Skoda Octavia, the Hyundai Elantra and the Toyota Corolla Altis. Interestingly, the new Civic, Honda brand's bestselling model in the world, makes its return to Indian market after a hiatus of seven years. The executive sedan comes in five variants with two engine and gearbox options.

The Honda Civic petrol is priced starting at Rs 17.70 lakh for the base V variant, Rs 19.20 lakh for the mid-spec VX, while the top-spec ZX trim costs Rs 21.00 lakh at pan Indian showroom.

On the other hand, the two diesel variants on offer are the VX and ZX, priced at Rs 20.50 lakh and Rs 22.30 lakh, respectively.

"With Honda Civic, the global bestseller, we have expanded our product portfolio in India to bridge the gap in our sedan line-up in the country," Gaku Nakanishi, President and CEO at Honda Cars India told Financial Chronicle.

He said this was the third new model introduced in FY19 and the launch of Civic completed its premium sedan line-up to take on rivals such as market leader Maruti Suzuki, Korean brand Hyundai, the second biggest car maker and Mahindra, the third in the pecking order.

"We have already got confirmed bookings for 1,100 new Honda Civic cars which is equivalent to two months sales volume in the executive sedan segment," Nakanishi pointed out.

He said with new launches in place, the brand would sell more than the auto industry this fiscal, without specifying volumes. In the first 11 months this year, sales at Honda grew 6.5 per cent compared to the corresponding period last year. In terms of features, the top-spec Civic ZX variants come with automatic LED headlights with LED DRLs, rain-sensing wipers, an electric sunroof, 17-inch alloys, leather upholstery, powered driver's seat, dual-zone climate control, a 7.0-inch touch screen infotainment system with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, ambient lighting, auto-dimming rear-view mirror and a segment-first lane watch camera system.

The safety equipment includes four airbags, ABS with EBD, vehicle stability assist, agile handling assist, an electronic parking brake with auto brake hold, hill-start assist and reverse camera with parking sensors for all variants of the Honda Civic.