Honda’s Indian distributor Honda Siel Cars India Ltd CEO Masahiro Takedagawa says that Honda is seriously studying the possibility of developing a small diesel engine for compact cars such as the Honda City, especially for countries such as India where diesel cars are extremely popular thanks to the 30% price difference between petrol and diesel fuel.
Honda currently has a 2.2 litre second generation diesel engine called the i-DTEC. The first generation was called the i-CTDi and some of you may remember the cute ad campaign that debuted with the engine.
India will also become a key manufacturing base for Honda’s global supply chain as certain key engine components will begin to be supplied from there. The Indian engine component plant will mainly supply the ASEAN market, so in the future our 1.5 litre i-VTEC engines in the upcoming new Honda City may come from India.
The FTA which allows special duty benefits for 8 to 10 engine components traded between the two countries allows India to enter the ASEAN engine component market. This list may be widened in the future.
And who knows, we could see a 1.4 litre Honda City i-DTEC some time in the future too! Though it may have little hope of making it onto our shores as our diesel prices are now very close to petrol prices despite having very low quality, after enjoying many years of being alot cheaper than petrol.
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Cool!
smaller? why smaller