Honda’s City e:HEV has the potential to attract buyers who prefer the ridiculously good fuel efficiency of the diesel engine.
Honda Cars India has launched the City e:HEV in India. This hybrid version of the City sedan is being offered in one single fully-loaded variant, called the ZX, which is unlike the City’s name in Thailand where this particular car gets an RS badge. The City e:HEV is priced at Rs 19.50 lakh (ex-showroom). Bookings for the car are now open, and deliveries are expected to start soon.
Let’s first get the powertrain out of the way. The City e:HEV gets a 1.5-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine, but it is not the same as the regular City’s. This engine is based on an Atkinson Cycle and is fused with two electric motors. The first one is an electric starter-generator, and the other one works as a regular motor. The entire setup uses what Honda calls an eCVT to channel drive to the front wheels.
Overall, the entire powertrain can produce 124bhp and 253Nm of torque, which are impressive numbers. The overall efficiency is rated at 26.5km/l, which means that the City e:HEV has the potential to do more than 1000km on a full tank of petrol.
Honda has also added new features to the City e:HEV to justify its high price tag. You get ADAS, and while it is not the cheapest car to offer this feature, it is exciting to see that more and more mass-market cars are now offering it. On the City e:HEV, the system is called the Honda Sensing Suite and uses a camera unit. It offers functionality such as adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist, and auto-emergency braking, just like other cars with ADAS.
Other safety features include lane watch cameras, six airbags, a tyre pressure monitoring system, Vehicle Stability Management, hill-start assist, and ISOFIX mounting points on the rear seat.
There are also subtle hints to indicate that it is a new City. There is a blue outline on the Honda logo and an e:HEV badge on the boot. The fog light gets a new garnish, and the rear diffuser has been redesigned. Plus, there is a new spoiler on the boot lid. The interior, however, is pretty much the same, although you do get an updated touchscreen, which is 8 inches in size. All this aside, the e:HEV has all the features of the regular City as well.
The City e:HEV is a new type of car and is quite unique in terms of its price and what it does. It gives petrol car buyers the option of hypermiling, for its excellent fuel efficiency means that its running costs would be similar to that of the diesel engine.
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