To cater to the growing demand for diesel cars among Indian customers, Honda may come up with a smaller diesel engine for the recently launched city. “We do feel the necessity of having a smaller diesel engine and are seriously studying the possibility. The development from scratch takes around three years. India is so popular for diesel cars because of high price difference—as much as 30%—between petrol and diesel. India is (the) only…(major) country in the world with such price differentials. In countries such as China, (those in) Europe, and Japan, this difference is only 10-12%,” Masahiro Takedagawa, president and CEO, HSCI said.
Unlike the other manufacturers such as Toyota or GM, Honda has very few diesel powered cars leaving the diesel advantage to others. Except the popular i-DTEC engine which Honda uses for its Accord and CR-V, Honda has no diesel models in its line-up. But as the market share of diesel cars continues to raise in markets like Honda is in need to come up with diesel to continue its leadership. Remember we reported you earlier on Honda testing the CR-V diesel in India http://www.vicky.in/blog/honda-cr-v-diesel/
For City and Jazz Honda may produce a smaller i-DTEC engine.