Honda Amaze to amaze Indian auto lowers

Honda India will make a debut in the diesel car market with the Amaze sedan, a car that will compete with models like Maruti Suzuki Dzire and Tata Indigo CS.

The Amaze, that will sport an all-aluminum 1,500cc engine, will be available in the market by the middle of next year even as a petrol version of the model was launched in Thailand.

To control the cost of the vehicle, Honda has decided to keep the length of the Amaze under 4 meters. This will enable the company avail lower excise duty on the model as it will be categorised as a small car which attracts a duty of 12% against the 24% mandated for bigger cars.

While the price of the model is not known, the company is understood to be looking at a retail price of under Rs 7 lakh.

The Honda New Sedan will feature a 1.2L petrol engine and it would be the same that drives the Brio with different tuning of power and ratios. In India, the Sedan will also be introduced with a 1.5L diesel engine that the company is developing and is expected to be powered by 1.5 Liter i-DTEC turbo diesel engine.. The engine will be manufactured locally and will also be exported from India. Speculations are rife that the Brio Sedan will be less than 4 meters in length and would compete with the likes of Maruti Suzuki Dzire, Tata Indigo eCS etc.
Honda has is also expected to drive in a diesel variant of its best-seller City by the end of next year. The company will also use the new diesel engine across various models, including a 7-seater multi-utility vehicle -- on the lines of Maruti Ertiga -- and an all-new compact SUV.

The Amaze has been developed on the platform of the company's mini car Brio.

The company has decided to make the diesel engines and transmission in India to control costs and cut the dependence on imports as the latter can turn costly due to foreign exchange fluctuations. The engines will be manufactured at Honda's Tapukara plant and this factory will also be used to build cars at a later stage.