Japanese automaker Honda Cars on Thursday entered the mainstream hybrid electric vehicle segment in India with the City e:HEV sedan.
The car will go on sale in the country next month.
The New City e:HEV, the company said, features a self-charging two motor e-CVT hybrid system connected to a 1.5-litre petrol engine and gives peak power of 126 PS and fuel efficiency of 26.5 km per litre. The car harnesses any electrical energy through braking and self-charges the lithium Ion battery pack with no need to manually charge the battery.
In an interaction with The Hindu, Takuya Tsumura, President & CEO, Honda Cars India Ltd, who very recently took over the role, said, “I'm still new and learning many things...but I am very excited to take this role because India is the fourth biggest market and it is a very dynamic market as well.”
“I entered Honda in 1990, and from headquarters from 1997 to 2000, I was in charge of India when Honda was starting up in India. When we started up the business in India, I was a junior member but launched Honda City in India. For me, after 20 years taking this role is something for me. City has a very good position in India... so I am very excited.
Actually, it is very good start for me and I'm very happy to introduce this model in the market,” he added.
Asked about the growth he saw for the company this year amid supply shortages and other challenges, he said, “I won’t like to talk about long term because of current uncertainties. It's hard to predict even the today's or tomorrow's production...but I believe that most of the OEMs are in the same condition...in that sense at least based on the market growth in India... we would try more than that growth.”
Mr. Tsumura said the company is doing quite well in the market but there is still scope to increase sales in the future and the company would bring cars that the Indian customer wanted to achieve that.
