Honda City Goes Electric! India Launch On April 14th; Promises 27 Kmpl Mileage With These Stunning Features

By Shreya Bose Last updated Mar 31, 2022

The Honda City Hybrid is set to arrive in India on April 14.

It was introduced to the world in August 2020 and was supposed to start selling in India in 2021.

However, COVID-19 related lockdowns and production constraints forced a change of plans.

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Appearance

The City Hybrid will be Honda’s first new model for India since the facelifted Amaze in August 2021.

The styling of the India-spec model is likely to be similar to the global-spec City RS.

It gets sporty looking front and rear bumpers with new black accents on the grille, ORVMs and bumpers along with an all-black theme for the interior.

The car makes use of Honda’s i-MMD hybrid technology that combines an internal combustion engine and two electric motors.

The tech allows the car to run solely on electric power in urban environs, thereby greatly helping fuel economy.

The fuel efficiency figure is expected to be around 20km/l in the mixed driving cycle.

On highways, the hybrid powertrain steps in and helps boost performance.

It runs on a 98hp, 127Nm, 1.5-litre, four-cylinder, naturally aspirated Atkinson Cycle petrol engine.

The petrol engine is paired with an electric motor that assists and functions as an integrated starter-generator (ISG).

A second electric motor, producing 109hp and 253Nm of torque, sends drive to the front wheels via a bespoke gearbox with a single, fixed-gear ratio.

There will likely be three drive modes –EV mode, internal combustion, and hybrid mode.

Honda has confirmed that the City Hybrid will be offered with the Honda Sensing technology in India.

It is the company’s suite of active safety features that include:

The City Hybrid will be the first Honda in India to be offered with this safety suite.

When it is launched, it will be branded as ‘Honda City e:HEV’.

Although its unveiling will take place in April, it is expected to go on sale sometime in May 2022.

Honda intends to sell around 250-300 units of the City hybrid each month, which is about 10% of the regular model’s average monthly sales figure.

The carmaker has set a conservative target and is not banking on large volumes which will reflect on the pricing.

The top-end variant of the City hybrid is expected to come in at around Rs 20 lakh.

With such pricing, the company will use the sales to obtain crucial data for planning future hybrid and electric model launches in the market.