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Honda Cars India on Thursday launched its entry-level diesel car – Amaze sedan – that will compete with the likes of Swift Dzire, Etios and Indigo of Maruti Suzuki India, Toyota Kirloskar Motor and Tata Motors, respectively.
The price range starts from Rs 5.99 lakh to 7.60 lakh (ex-showroom, New Delhi).
India is the first country to launch the Amaze with Honda's latest i-DTEC diesel engine technology.
The 1.5-litre engine has a claimed fuel economy of 25.8 kmpl, available only in manual transmission with maximum power output of 100PS at 3,600rpm. The petrol version is to be equipped with the 1.2-L, i-VTEC engine, which is been used in its small car Brio. It has a maximum power output of 88PS at 6,000rpm. The price range of the petrol version starts at Rs 4.99 lakh and goes up to Rs 7.50 lakh (ex-showroom, New Delhi).
While the manual variant of the petrol car will give 18 kmpl, the automatic model (available only in petrol) will give fuel economy of 15.5 kmpl as per test data, the company said.
Excise duty benefit
The entry-level sedan also qualifies for the excise duty benefit as any car with a petrol engine capacity up to 1.2L or diesel engine up to 1.5L, and which is less than four metres in length attracts a lower excise duty of 12 per cent. Cars of similar engine capacity, but exceeding 4 metres attract 24 per cent excise duty.
The Amaze has been developed at the Honda Research and Development Asia Pacific, located in Bangkok, following market surveys in India on people's driving needs and lifestyles.
“With the launch of Honda Amaze, we are looking towards newer horizons in the Indian market.
“Amaze will be a game changer for us and over the next few years we will look to increase our operating universe in India to around 50 per cent,” said Hironori Kanayama, President and CEO.
The company is also offering Honda Care maintenance package for two years or 40,000 km (whichever is earlier) for Rs 9,996 for petrol version and Rs 15,375 for Amaze diesel.
Honda Cars had already started bookings for the car on April 1, for which deliveries will start today from its 150 dealers across 97 cities.
The company will expand its dealers’ network to 162 facilities and 102 cities by end of this financial year.
> ronendrasingh.s@thehindu.co.in
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