Honda Thailand releases teaser image of Brio based sedan

Honda Thailand has thrown some light on the Brio based sedan bound for India in 2013.  It recently released a picture detailing the various models sold by the Japanese automaker in the country. Among the six vehicles featured, the last one is a silhouette of a sedan with “1.2-litre” written in it. This is surely a car powered by the same petrol i-VTEC engine in the Brio hatchback.

However, this is India and the only thing that sells these days are diesel cars. This makes it a good case for Honda to introduce a smaller version of the four cylinder 1.6-litre i-DTEC  ‘EarthDreams’  diesel unit that was showcased with the 2013 European-spec Honda Civic last month.

Some reports suggest that Honda is already working on an engine displacing 1.2 litres, which brings it well within the norms for the excise duty cut. This will debut on the Brio sedan and then go on to power a range of small cars in various displacements. The City diesel – and maybe the Jazz, too – will be powered by a slightly larger displacement engine. We expect it to be under 1.5-litres, to reap the benefits of the same excise norms. This is unlike the strategy followed by other Indian players like Nissan or Fiat/Tata/Suzuki, who have chosen a single diesel engine in various states of tune to power a wide range of cars.

Coming back to the Brio based sedan, it will be a sub-four meter car enabling Honda to avail another excise concession and price it in competition with the Maruti Suzuki Dzire and Toyota Etios. Keeping in line with Honda Japan CEO Takanobu Ito's goals Honda India will also localise many of the components of the engine to keep costs down, allowing for a competitive price.

This model is expected to sit below the City as an entry-level sedan for emerging markets like Thailand, Indonesia and India. It will certainly revive sales of the big H which fell drastically after the sudden deregulation of petrol prices around a year ago.