Surprise: Honda testing 2013 CR-V in India *EDIT* Now launched from 19.95 Lakhs

[sarthakgupta]

Mod Note : Please continue the discussion in The Honda CR-V Official Review Thread (Honda CR-V : Driven)


Really. Honda has a tendency to keep us on our toes by making us play a lot of guess games. Please see the following article:

.....Our sources close to Honda who helped us break the news of the Honda City facelift last year, have now confirmed that Honda Siel has begun testing the 2013 CR-V on the Indian soil. The news comes in as a big surprise in the wake of rising petrol costs and when speculations are rife that Honda may discontinue its Civic line-up in India due to falling demand for petrol cars. The CR-V too has been plagued with diminutive sales figures since the potent crossover doesn’t come with a diesel option. In spite of that, Honda has begun testing the all-new CR-V in India.

The CR-V that is sold in India currently is imported from the European market.

.....Our sources have confirmed that the CR-V being tested right now is the petrol version......

Seriously, I don't understand what Honda is planning? Civic being withdrawn at one side and OTOH more fuel guzzling CR-V making way in India. Honda needs to understand that petrol SUV is almost a dead breed in India.

Lets hope that some deeper strategic thinking is going on at Honda than what is apparently visible to us.

Source:Exclusive Scoop! Honda begins testing 2013 CR-V in India

[Nitrous Power]

Originally Posted by sarthakgupta

Seriously, I don't understand what Honda is planning? Civic being withdrawn at one side and OTOH more fuel guzzling CR-V making way in India. Honda needs to understand that petrol SUV is almost a dead breed in India.

Lets hope that some deeper strategic thinking is going on at Honda than what is apparently visible to us.

Simple, both, Civic and CR-V have been replaced internationally. There are no more body kits being manufactured. Civic is selling approximately 100 copies a month where the segment competitors sell around 500 a month. And internationally Civic has received negative reviews and Honda is in process of refresh model. So, it does not make sense for Honda to launch new Civic . OTOH, new CR-V got good reviews and is selling in good numbers internationally. It is outselling Toyota RAV-4 in USA and CR-V is always a low seller in India. If they want to continue selling CR-V, it has to be new model.

[AbhishekB86]

Is it quality standards that prevents Honda from rolling out diesel vehicles? I don't understand why they don't adopt to the market dynamics. If they do roll out a diesel running CRV it will storm the market. I really am being a little optimistic here in hoping they will introduce diesel cars.

[nik_kapur]

Crazy !
Why on earth would you launch the new CRV in Petrol. ?? The damn thing gives 6km/l

Who will buy one? And if they do find 30 customers a month, is it worth the effort for Honda?

There has to be a diesel one being tested or planned

[316kmph]

I am making a lot of guesses here.

1. Honda will need premium models else the line up will be Brio only in a couple of years!

2. Indian govt. is unpredictable, may suddenly come up with a diesel de-subsidizing plan.

3. CRV could be a CBU and preparing for homologation (even 300 units a year is ok) while Civic (with Honda blaming quality & ruling out diesel engine) will have to be built here (to be competitive) and will need critical volumes (say 1200 units a year - hard to achieve with current petrol - diesel price gap) to justify assembly line up.

4. Spare a thought for Mitsubishi that is assembling the outlander!

[KL01BE]

I guess Honda is taking a gamble here, a huge one this time. The regulations in the case of diesel is going to stay for atleast a couple more years. This year's drought will have a very drastic impact on the economy and the government cannot even think about adding to the living cost of the common man. Also, the auto-industry is not in a very good shape with the rupee depreciating and all. So good luck Honda.

[AbhiJ]

4.5 Year CRV Owner here. VERY happy with the car.

Message to Honda. Get a diesel, or dont bother with the testing or the launch.

[swiftnfurious]

1. None of us know whether a diesel CR-V is in pipe-line.
2. CRV is a CBU, so they just need to import it & make NO huge investments to bring it in.
3. When CR-V has been launched internationally, why not launch it in India too & gather whatever sales it can?!
4. As said, the sales of Honda is on a rise in international markets [except Civic] which talks about their new line up of products.

Why bash when we have little info on something? Even I would love to see a diesel version of CR-V, Civic etc and knowing that Honda has started about thinking of diesel options, would look forward for future launches.

[vineethvazhayil]

The new CR-V is doing rather too well in the US too. I see a lot of new CR-Vs and know at least a few in my friend circle who have bought one or are considering one. Maybe they are pairing the 2.2 diesel with it for India as the first car with the bigger diesel engine.

[promit]

I'm thinking out loud. Hasn't Honda been offering a 2.2L i-dtec diesel motor in the CR-V in the European markets for some time now? Since its already a CBU, how hard would it have been for them to plonk the 2.2 diesel motor and bring it down ? Unless our country's diesel fuel isnt suited to this engine or something

[shadows123]

Originally Posted by promit

I'm thinking out loud. Hasn't Honda been offering a 2.2L i-dtec diesel motor in the CR-V in the European markets for some time now? Since its already a CBU, how hard would it have been for them to plonk the 2.2 diesel motor and bring it down ? Unless our country's diesel fuel isnt suited to this engine or something

Our country's diesel isnt suited actually. It seems the nil-sulphur diesel engines which run in Europe is not feasible to run in Indian diesel conditions so they cannot bring it as a CBU here!

[StarScream]

Originally Posted by AbhishekB86

Is it quality standards that prevents Honda from rolling out diesel vehicles? I don't understand why they don't adopt to the market dynamics. If they do roll out a diesel running CRV it will storm the market. I really am being a little optimistic here in hoping they will introduce diesel cars.

I disagree with the storm the market bit. The petrol CR-V already crosses 23-24 lakhs. A diesel CR-V at 26 lakhs isn't going to make much of a difference to the sales as long as the car remains a CBU.

Originally Posted by nik_kapur

Crazy !
Why on earth would you launch the new CRV in Petrol. ?? The damn thing gives 6km/l

Who will buy one? And if they do find 30 customers a month, is it worth the effort for Honda?

As others have said, since its a CBU and they find buyers even at the crazy-high prices, it takes very little effort on the part of Honda to sell the car. I personally think the CR-V is a great way to use up black money.

[avira_tk]

Originally Posted by promit

Unless our country's diesel fuel isnt suited to this engine or something

This was a favourite line from Toyota also, apparently the Germans aren't as advanced with diesel tech so they have 3 litre engines putting out nearly 250 bhp, Toyota has one that puts out 160. Honda should give up this line, a little tweak here and there should make the engine usable for our kind of diesel. This is anyway a big hatch on stilts, with Honda pricing it will end up costing as much as a 520d.

PS: Petrol SUVs are dead, I guess this is a display of friendship to fellow Japanese brand Mitsubishi - which shocked everyone with the Outlander, available only in petrol.

[A350XWB]

Originally Posted by StarScream

I disagree with the storm the market bit. The petrol CR-V already crosses 23-24 lakhs. A diesel CR-V at 26 lakhs isn't going to make much of a difference to the sales as long as the car remains a CBU.

I tend to agree with the above comment. The price of CR-V is between 23 and 25 L ex-showroom. Add to that the road-tax, insurance etc. and it becomes close to 30L OTR. That price for a petrol SUV, when the likes of Fortuner are available for a lesser price killed the CR-V (well, almost).
Honda has been manufacturing diesel CR-V's for quite some time. In 2003, they developed their first diesel engine, the 2.2 litre i-CTDi, which was available for the CR-V in Europe. I've seen diesel CR-V's in Germany atleast as far back as 2007. Why they never considered this for a market like India where diesel is a necessity, I don't know. And CR-V is not a hot-selling cake in EU. Still, they have been selling the diesel version there, for quite some time now.
[http://world.honda.com/Diesel/]

[mayankjha1806]

There is still some market for petrol (Although very limited) SUV's if priced right, Honda should ensure they price this CRV at a level were folks would like to plonk in money.

We have Outlanders/CRV in extended family, and they run a few times a week, and the diesels are run daily. Somehow we have seen Petrols are better when you have a car that needs to be parked for most of the week and only gets its solitary run once a week.

So, this news item is interesting to me, especially when they plan to Launch a Petrol SUV in a Diesel dominated market. Will be curious to know what kind of planning they have to give the car enough reasons to be moderately successful.