Honda Cars India has unveiled the much-awaited Honda City e:HEV hybrid sedan ahead of its scheduled launch in India which is going to take place in May 2022. Honda will be offering the City e:HEV only in the top-spec ZX variant. In comparison, the Honda City is currently offered in the V, VX and ZX variants and the company also sells the older fourth-generation City in India as well. While this is the first time that the City is going on sale in India with a proper hybrid system, it is not the first car being offered with hybrid tech by Honda in India as they had first done this with the Honda Accord back in 2016.
Powering the Honda City e:HEV is the same 1.5-litre, four-cylinder, naturally aspirated petrol engine which will now come with a hybrid system including a lithium-ion battery pack integrated into the boot and an electric motor to assist the engine as well. The combined output of the new Honda City e:HEV is 124 bhp and 253 Nm of torque – out of which, 127 Nm comes from the petrol engine.
The big advantage that comes from the inclusion of the hybrid technology, of course, is the fact that the Honda City e:HEV boasts of a fantastic mileage of 26.5 km/l, which is about 40 per cent higher than the regular combustion engine powered variants. Additionally, Honda has also put three drive modes on offer in the Honda City e:HEV, namely – EV, Hybrid and petrol. And yes, that means that the City e:HEV can indeed run on electric power alone. This happens when you are gentle with the throttle although you can individually cycle through these driving modes via a rotary knob as well. The other changes include updated disc brakes on all wheels and a weight gain of around 110 Kg due to the addition of the new hybrid system.
The inclusion of the battery pack into the boot means that the boot space on the City e:HEV has gone down from 506 litres in the standard version to 410 litres, a reduction of 96 litres of space.
In terms of design, the City e:HEV is identical to the regular Honda City both inside and out, barring the addition of a new hybrid meter on the instrument cluster which replaces the conventional tachometer. On the features front, the City e:HEV will come with an electric parking brake with hill hold assist and ambient lighting.
The Honda City e:HEV will compete against the Maruti Suzuki Ciaz which too gets a hybrid system, although, the hybrid system on the Honda City is more advanced as compared to the one on the Maruti Suzuki Ciaz.
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