[TusharK]

Earlier this month, Honda announced a few changes to its City line-up, more specifically, to the City Hybrid. The carmaker has discontinued the mid-variant of the City e:HEV, which means, it is now available only in the top-spec 'ZX' trim.



The City Hybrid was launched in India back in May 2022. The car was offered in two variants: V and ZX, at the time of launch. Now, customers only get one variant option, which is priced at Rs 20.55 lakh (ex-showroom).

What this has done is widened the price gap between the top-spec non-hybrid Honda City and the City Hybrid. The standard ZX CVT costs Rs 16.35 lakh, which means customers now have to shell out more than Rs 4 lakh more for the hybrid version.

That being said, the City Hybrid does come equipped with a lot of features. The Honda Sensing ADAS suite includes safety features like Lane Keep Assist, Collision Mitigation Braking System, Road Departure Mitigation, Adaptive Cruise Control and Auto High Beam. The car also gets TPMS, Vehicle Stability Assist, Agile Handling Assist, Hill Start Assist and more.

The City Hybrid uses a 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol engine paired with two electric motors, offering a combined output of 124 BHP and 253 Nm. The engine is mated to a continuously variable transmission (CVT).

Link to Team-BHP News

[GTO]

Originally Posted by TusharK

The standard ZX CVT costs Rs 16.35 lakh, which means customers now have to shell out more than Rs 4 lakh more for the hybrid version.

How to sell a Hybrid in India = Ask Toyota (Hycross) & Maruti (Grand Vitara)

How to kill a Hybrid in India = Ask Honda (City). Then, ask Honda again, why they didn't offer the Hybrid tech in the Elevate.

It's sad because the City Hybrid is FANTASTIC; the overall driving experience & NVH levels are far superior to Toyota-Maruti's implementation in the Grand Vitara / Hyryder.

However, asking customers to pay 4-lakhs for the Hybrid tech is going nowhere. Give us a Hybrid in the mid-variant, give us a Hybrid without ADAS.

I am very surprised with Honda India's poor strategy. The City - once a strong mover for Honda - is now just about staying at 4-digit sales with ~1100 cars / month. The City is languishing since December.

And the million dollar question is = Why on earth was this Hybrid tech not offered in the Elevate? Not only would it be the most modern part in the car, but also, the Grand Vitara & Hyryder have shown there is good demand for Hybrid Crossovers.

[vvs29]

This makes no sense. When I was looking for a car couple of months back, I had the City hybrid V in contention because it cost the same (with discounts) as the Hyryder S (which had no discounts but had a waiting period) with much more equipment and better performance, not to mention as GTO said, a better system. The top end at 25L makes no sense as it then competes with much better cars like Seltos higher trims, Creta N Line, even the Hycross NA variant.

And personally, at 6'4" I can't sit in the City when it has a sunroof even when the seat is at it's lowest position. I have to tilt my head to even fit in. This means for tall people like me, even if they are ready to pay a premium, the City Hybrid is now an impossible choice.

[DivyanshuDiv]

They want to gracefully kill CITY entry levels, and replace it with Elevate Hybrid. Once the sub-compact SUV comes into picture, this sedan will be a limited offering. Eventually, ever Honda product above 4 meter will be either electric or hybrid in next 3-4 of years.

[saket77]

Originally Posted by DivyanshuDiv

They want to gracefully kill CITY entry levels, and replace it with Elevate Hybrid.

If that is the reason, then Honda is either confused or has not planned the future well. The thing is if they want to kill the City entry level then shouldn't have introduced the SV variant undercutting the V variant with the 5th gen facelift.

[Thyag]

Another dumb move, previous was not releasing Elevate with Hybrid variant. Now the affordability goes out for the people who want to try hybrid system. Maybe the management is not that much interested anymore about man and machine, just fulfilling their egos maybe. Do they even have any team to collect market data

[pgsagar]

Honda has probably laid their hands on a book titled "How to dig your own grave!". Seriously, if this is not a hara-kiri then what is? Not just this. They brought new gen Civic, CRV even Accord, after a long hiatus but killed them before they could even take off. Sometimes I wonder if their India team is planted by rival car cos. I find no other rational explanation.

[Axe77]

My first thought when I saw this was - WHY!! It’s hard enough for Honda to sell its hybrid variant. For a customer that’s daunted by the 4 lakh premium over its ICE sibling, at least give them the option of buying a mid spec City Hybrid. This way you’re also forcing customers to also consider the Toyota Hyryder instead of the City.

Really bad move. Honda management can take a leaf out of Toyota’s book and that’s saying a lot because Toyota management isn’t much to write home about to start with.

If the Korean twins ever bring strong hybrids in this segment, I can just see them walking all over the Jap twins - Honda for sure with the wide array of option onslaught that they typically bring.

[It's Magic]

Although the Honda City is a main product in Honda's lineup, it's sales have not been great in the last few months, hovering around 1000 per month.

Asking people to pay an additional 4 lakh and purchase the top-end variant if they want a Hybrid is certainly a poor strategy. Honda is already under pressure, and such a move will only make things more difficult for them.

In my opinion, they should have introduced more Hybrid options across their product range to attract more customers.

Do we know how many units of the mid-variant used to sell compared to the top-end variant?
If Hyundai or Maruti introduces a couple of Hybrid variants for Verna or Ciaz respectively to boost sales tomorrow, things will get even more difficult for the Honda City.

[sarathlal]

Originally Posted by DivyanshuDiv

They want to gracefully kill CITY entry levels

Nah, Honda never kills their models gracefully. Not even their top of the line were granted a good death aka CRV, Accord et al.

In fact this IS Honda's forte, bring in combinations nobody wants, and keep out offerings, everybody is likely to lap up. (Remember, Civic Diesel Manual and Petrol Auto)

[Venkatesh]

Originally Posted by It's Magic

Do we know how many units of the mid-variant used to sell compared to the top-end variant?

According to ACI

Dispatches of City hybrid have been around just 350 units a month, and total sales number is just around 2,000 unit mark.

Honda did introduce a slightly less equipped, more affordable trim of the City hybrid to attract more buyers; however this exercise did not work and sales have continued to be marginal till date.

Source

[jacobsam]

As a City Hybrid Zx owner, I too was in a dilemma whether to go for the Zx variant or the V variant. Why Zx because I prefer to keep things stock and went for the best variant available. Financially, the decision could be unreasonable.
During my negotiations, the V model then had comparatively better discounts which transpires that probably the hybrid customer was preferring the top variant only.

[drsnt]

I strongly believe that Honda has taken a preemptive step in case a government subsidy for hybrids is announced. It would have made hybrid variants cheaper than non-hybrid at mid and lower levels. Plus they would like to milk the most by giving a hybrid option in the top variant only.

[dextor]

If such decision has been made, probably the sales would have reflected the same. Or the other reason would be inability of Honda to produce too many Hybrid engines.

Honda Hybrid system is imported from Japan which makes the cost so high and (may be) leading to limited supply.

Probably these might be the reasons why Honda never considered Hybrid option for Elevate -

1. With limited supply Elevate Hybrid would mostly be in waiting.

2. Honda is pretty sure it cannot do enough numbers to do local manufacturing of Hybrid system unless it does a Suzuki-Toyota kind of partnership.

3. The cost of Hybrid would have added another 4-5 L to Elevate pricing making it a tough sell.

4. Honda is keen on Elevate EV because of the Tax angle which is for real as it adds only 5% compared to 45-48% in Hybrid/ICE.

I believe EV game will also depend a lot on timing - Creta EV slotted for 2025 while Elevate EV might only be possible by 2026.

Hyundai meanwhile also does not have any plan for Hybrid in India but some news (unverified) says Kia is exploring the option.

[Kum_CarFreak]

Originally Posted by GTO

How to kill a Hybrid in India = Ask Honda (City). Then, ask Honda again, why they didn't offer the Hybrid tech in the Elevate.

I agree entirely with GTO sir, with my limited 15 year knowledge on cars.

Honda shouldn't have chopped the mid-version of the hybrid powerplants in City, that too when Honda is critically facing tough times in India.

I am still unsure why Honda hasn't yet launched a turbo petrol like the one it has in Thailand or somewhere.

Indian market is now inclined toward performance-based turbo Petrols, and Honda Cars India Limited is way behind ages in this aspect, in the Indian market.

Though I myself own and prefer NA Petrols over the fantastic turbo Petrols which is completely my personal preference considering my finances and expectations from the car.

Honda India, at a mass level, must respect Indian consumer needs, It is high time now, else unfortunately, Honda will have a tough time in India with its cars.