Honda in all likelihood is going to stop producing three of its models – the Jazz, fourth-gen City and WR-V – in India, reported Autocar India. However, a compact SUV (codename: 3US) – is set to join the portfolio in 2023.
If the plan goes through, then it would leave the Japanese carmaker with just two models in its India lineup – the fifth-gen City and Amaze.
As per reports, the Honda Jazz could be discontinued as early as November 2022, while the fourth-gen City will likely get axed by December this year. Meanwhile, the WR-V is likely to continue till March 2023. While Honda hasn’t released an official statement on the matter yet, the Autocar India reported it quoting information from a company insider.
However, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that these three models will be discontinued as they’re in the market for quite a long time, and are at the end of their life cycles. The Gen 4 Honda City has been on sale since 2014 and was not discontinued even though its replacement, the Gen 5 model, came along in 2020. This generation of Honda Jazz, meanwhile, came the following year in 2015, and briefly went off sale with the introduction of BS6 norms in April 2020, before returning as a petrol-only model in August that year.
The WR-V, meanwhile, which is based on the Jazz, is the newest of the bunch as it was launched in March 2017. The crossover will also be the last of the three to be axed, as it sells relatively better than the other two and despite being a crossover, it is also Honda’s representative in the compact SUV segment for the time being.
As per the Autocar India report, the Honda WR-V is likely to be replaced by a more traditional compact SUV in 2023 that will be a more direct rival to the likes of the Tata Nexon, Hyundai Venue, Kia Sonet and Maruti Suzuki Brezza. In fact, other than their age, the reason the aforementioned models are being discontinued is to free up production capacity for the new-generation model.
To facilitate the production of the upcoming compact SUV, the Japanese carmaker’s plant in Tapukara, Rajasthan will have to make a transition, with the goal to make 50 percent of this capacity for domestic sales and the remaining for export. Additionally, as per the report, Honda will compensate its components suppliers for any losses they might incur as a result of the discontinuation of the three models.
The new compact SUV will be based on the Amaze’s platform, and as such, will likely use the same powertrains too – the 1.2 iVTEC petrol and 1.5 iDTEC diesel, the latter giving it an advantage in a segment increasingly moving towards petrol. As with the Amaze, it could have another feather in its cap in the form of CVT automatic options for both engines.