Honda Cars India will be discontinuing its flagship models - the Civic sedan and the CR-V SUV in the country. This announcement follows the company's decision to end vehicle production at its Greater Noida plant and move its entire production unit to the Honda Tapukara plant in the Alwar district, Rajasthan. Commenting on the development, a Honda Cars India spokesperson told carandbike, "Due to the stoppage of production in Greater Noida Unit, there will be no production of CR-V and Civic as both these models cannot be made in Tapukara plant which was conceived as an integrated plant with high efficiency to produce small and mid-size cars." Honda says that it's consolidate the manufacturing operations at its Tapukara plant to maintain sustainability of operations by leveraging production & supply chain efficiencies.
In addition to production-related issues, we also have to consider the fact that both the Honda Civic and the CR-V have been two of the lowest selling models in the company's line-up. In the last six months alone, the company only sold about 850 units of the Civic and a little over 100 units of the CR-V in India. In comparison, the newly launched 7th gen Honda City accounts for an average of 4000 units a month, while the WR-V is good for about over 1000 units a month. The Honda Amaze continued to be the company's top-seller at about 5000 units a month, while the Honda Jazz accounts for nearly 700 units a month, on an average.
The Honda Civic came with a 1.8-litre i-VTEC petrol engine develops 139 bhp and 174 Nm of peak torque, while paired with only the CVT automatic, and a 1.6-litre i-DTEC diesel engine makes 118 bhp and 300 Nm of peak torque, while paired with only a 6-speed manual transmission. The CR-V got a 2.0-litre, 4-cylinder, SOHC i-VTEC petrol that also powers the regular model. The petrol mill is tuned to produce 152 bhp at 6,500 rpm and 189 Nm at 4,300 rpm and comes mated to a CVT unit.
The Honda Civic was priced between ₹ 17.94 lakh and ₹ 22.35 lakh, whereas the CR-V was priced from ₹ 28.27 lakh to ₹ 29.50 lakh (all ex-showroom, Delhi). Interestingly, in September 2020 Honda showcased the facelifted CR-V globally, and it is also working on the next-generation Civic sedan. However, with the existing models being discontinued here, and Honda India shutting the Greater Noida plant's production unit, the chances to the cars coming to India are bleak.
(With inputs from agencies)