HSCI is now Honda Cars India Limited; a New Name for a New Beginning

Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI), one of the most successful and dynamic sedan - makers in the country will soon be sporting a brand-new name – Honda Cars India Limited (HCIL). With the long-standing partnership between the celebrated Japanese auto-marque Honda and its Indian ally Usha International Limited (UIL) coming to an end, the joint venture between the two companies has turned into a fully-owned subsidiary of Honda. In the face of the current turn of events, it seems that it is not just the name 'Siel' that would be dropped by Honda India. There's much more that is going to be left behind by the time the year comes to a close. Taking cue from the fairly poor market-performance of their premium sedans Civic and Accord, Honda Cars are most likely to discontinue the two any day now. In fact, the production of Civic has already been stopped and it is only a matter of time now before the remaining stocks runs out. It just seems unfortunate that the cars that once ruled the luxury car segment, now stand abandoned at the hands of the ever-rising petrol hikes. The absence of a diesel mill under their hoods and the rapid shift of the market towards the oil-burners has truly lead to the extinction of these beauties from the Indian auto-world.

But, on the brighter side of things, the peppy and playful Honda Brio is soon going to be launched with a diesel engine and that is sure to boost its sales curves to a new peak. Ever since it made its debut back in September 2011, this small package of innovation blended with the unbeatable Honda engineering has been listed in the Most Popular Cars in India category. With an ultramodern outfit that is one of its kind and unbelievably low pricing, this hatchback has been extremely popular among the nuclear families. Moving further across the hatchback line-up of Honda, the stunning Jazz has made a grand come-back just last month. Although, it was gifted with the brilliant mechanics, regal comforts and some never-seen-before cuts and curves right from the beginning, Jazz was never able to achieve the splendorous sales figures that it was carved for. The credit for that solely goes to its not-so-competitive price tag. But with the recent launch of the new Jazz models, that flaw has been smartly removed by Honda and an exciting lable of Rs 5.50 lakh now comes attached to them. This has resulted in an astounding all-time high sales figures and Jazz has (all of a sudden) become the new favorite of the hatch-lovers.

Now coming to the star performer of the Honda fleet of vehicles – the Honda City. Been around for more than a decade now, and all the car has seen is pure crazy fandom. A flawless epitome of the Honda philosophy, Honda City is nothing but a brilliant package deal of lavish interiors and spell-binding exteriors fueled by a cutting-edge technology and sealed with the best-in-class safety features. Having undergone a series of alterations since its first release in 1998, City was rolled out once again during the first quarter of 2012 in the fresh look of Honda City 1.5 i-Vtec Automatic only to add to its pride of being the best-seller in the C segment. Now, as the atmosphere gets saturated with anticipations for the upcoming City Diesel, the company has come up with yet another master-stroke in the form of the CNG version of Honda City. Although, it might encounter some hurdles due to the dwindling CNG supplies in India. Recently, I shared that Mahindra Quanto to Launch on 20th September.