Honda City facelift: India launch soon?

Thanks to BHPian RavenAvi who sent this information in. Heartfelt gratitude for sharing it with other enthusiasts!

Honda India has exported two prototype models of the City sedan to Japan. Both these prototypes were equipped with the company's 1.5-litre i-DTEC diesel engine. A quick search on Zauba shows that the VIN and engine number of the exported models belong to a new production series. This suggests that the models exported to Japan might be the prototypes of the upcoming City facelift.

Interestingly, the current-gen City was launched in India in January 2014. It will thus complete three years of sales in January next year. Honda is known for maintaining a life cycle of around 2 ½ to 3 years for its popular products. As a result, it is highly likely that Honda will launch the City facelift in India in the near future.

Moreover, the City is currently losing its market share to the Maruti Ciaz in India. The Ciaz recently clocked 1 lakh sales within two years of its launch. As a result, Honda would like to regain its segment leader crown by launching the updated City at the earliest.

Earlier rumours suggested that Honda had postponed launch of the City facelift to 2017 in order to introduce it near the next-gen Hyundai Verna. The City facelift is expected to borrow design cues from the Honda Greiz sedan (pictured here) sold in China.