3 replies to this topic

[NikhilB]

Honda will spend approximately 30 billion yen to launch production of diesel cars in India in 2013, The Nikkei learned on Saturday.

(30Bn Yen is approx Rs. 2,000 Cr.)

This is what the preview of the article says. It is a paid article and I don't have access to the entire article.

Article on Nikkei. Alternately, can look for it under News > News by Subject > Select "Autos" > Article published on Sunday.

PS: The preview is available on this page now. Not sure for how long will it remain on it.

[pulsurge]

Good Morning to Honda and happy realisation...though late than never.

[NikhilB]

The problem with Honda was that Europe was not a big market for them.

Their major markets, North America and Japan have gasoline (petrol) powered cars in majority. Europe has about a 50-50 distribution between diesel and gasoline.
Hence they never concentrated on developing a diesel. IIRC, even for Europe, they just have one Diesel engine.

The realisation of the need for a diesel engine family came in a bit late. And Honda being itself, probably decided that they would develop one from ground up (with very minimal experience in diesels).

This, I suspect, has taken them good part of a decade.

[Revmaster]

The first would be the Brio with a 1.2 liter diesel mill. Three-pot or four pot - still a mystery. Their i-DTEC mill is a fantastic engine, hope they can replicate the brilliance on a smaller scale too.