Honda mulls developing India as a centre for diesel engines

Honda Motors has planned for India a long-term diesel game plan through which India will supposedly emerge as a global hub for diesel engines for compact cars. Since diesel tax has been left alone by the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Honda India - the Indian venture for the Japanese auto giant Honda Siel, is all set to create a diesel engine portfolio. Honda has started working in this direction with some of its best engineers working on the prototypes of diesel engines of 1.4 to 1.5 liters for compact cars at the company’s Research and Development centre in Tochigi. According to Jnaneswar Sen, Honda India’s senior VP, Sales and Marketing, at present a small diesel engine is being developed by Honda R&D. The engine would not be ready in 2012 since the development process has just begun, he added.

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Before setting up a diesel engine plant in India to meet the demand of global market, Honda Siel will first power its compact car range with diesel engines. In India the compact car range is led by Honda Jazz and Honda Brio. Honda is expected to make 100,000 diesel cars including exports before it sets up the plant. At present, Honda Siel has a factory that can produce 1 lakh to 1.2 lakh petrol cars. Honda started producing a new version of the Civic compact model in December at its engine manufacturing facility in Swindon, UK. At the recent Tokyo Motor Show, Honda revealed a 1.6 liter diesel engine that is supposed to power the Honda Civic for the European Market. For Honda Accord and Honda CR-V there is a 2.2 liter diesel engine.

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As per Mr. Sen, both these engines can be downgraded but since there are very few numbers of Accord and CR-V on Indian roads the downgrading is not justified. He also mentioned that unlike India the diesel used in the European market has low sulphur content and this fact has been taken into account while developing the engines for the European market. It has been over 15 years since Honda Siel is present in the Indian car market and the market share is just 2% despite the long stay. Rivals like Volkswagen have come in much later and still have overtaken Honda. The reason for low sales and market share is the absence of diesel cars from its line-up.

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