Honda’s CEO has confirmed in his speech that the company would launch a Jazz based compact SUV/ crossover in the coming few years. First, the Jazz’s next generation would be launched next year and the SUV can be expected to be launched till 2015. The SUV will also get a diesel engine as Honda engineers are working on compact diesel engines for both brio and Jazz. The company might also launch the diesel base SUV version of the Brio. The availability if the Diesel heart will surely help to increase the sales in India where diesel is considered to be very economical as compared to petrol.
The compact SUV will add more heat to the upcoming compact SUV market in the country with the recent launches of the Quanto, the Renault Duster and also Toyota and Volkswagen planning to bring compact SUV’s to India in the next few years. It would also be a straight rival to the ford Eco Sport.
The Jazz SUV has all the making of a hit in the Indian market, with the impressive styling of the Jazz already popular in the Indian market and the lack of a diesel variant leading to a dip in sales. The expected diesel engines for the Jazz and the Brio will surely help in increasing the hold of Honda on the Indian market.
Everybody is aware of the quality provided by Honda which is higher than probably any mass vehicle producing company in India. The Jazz SUV is expected to be spacious, comfortable, luxurious and yet sporty. Honda’s service network in India is also pretty good and that would help the crossover in getting tighter grips in the Indian market. The company’s major interest in Indian is the small car market which includes currently the brio and the Jazz.
The bold interiors and sharp edges of the Jazz make it look very sporty and that look added with a higher chassis and wider tyres would only add to the cutting edge look, making the Jazz a perfect choice for the young Indian buyer. A major fact on which the sales of the crossover would depend on is the piece range in which Honda price the Jazz. For it to be competitive with other crossovers, the Jazz must be priced between the 6-8 lakh window and whether Honda can achieve perfection in such budget will be there for all of us to see in about 2 years’ time.
Honda’s vehicles have always been class leaders, whether it is the City leading the sedan segment, the CRV in the SUV segment or the Accord leading the saloon class. It will be interesting to see whether the Jazz crossover / SUV would be able to follow in these footsteps and come out to be a leader in this new segment. With all the big brands investing in this upcoming segment, the future looks bright for the crossovers a.k.a Mini SUV’s. This is a youth based segment and is sure to be very popular among the style savvy youth in the near future.
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