India-made Honda Mobilio launches in South Africa with CVT

After making a grand success in the Indian car market, the Honda Mobilio MPV launched in the car market of South Africa this month. When Honda launched the Mobilio in India in July this year, the Japanese car maker announced that it will start the exports of the India-made car to markets such as Nepal and South Africa. As the India-made Mobilio has already launched in Nepal in September, 2014 at the NADA Auto Show, South Africa becomes the second export market for the made in India Honda MPV.

For the South African auto market, the Honda Brio-based Mobilio MPV is offered for sale in three model trims. The MPV is powered with a 1.5 liter 4-cylinder i-VTEC petrol engine that is capable of generating a max power output of 119 PS and 145 Nm of peak torque. Unlike India, South Africa will get the Mobilio MPV in only its petrol variants and the diesel version will not be offered there, as it is a petrol centric market. The new Honda Mobilio is offered with a choice of either a 5 speed manual transmission or an automatic transmission gearbox.

The Mobilio’s manual transmission version can sprint from 0 to 100 km per hr in just 10.8 seconds and offers the fuel efficiency of 16.39 km per liter. On the other hand, the CVT transmission version can turn to the speed of 100 km per hr from standstill in 11.3 seconds and offers a slight better fuel economy of 16.66 km per liter.

The Honda Mobilio MPV is available in the South African car market in three model trims, namely Trend, Comfort and Comfort CVT. All the model variants are equipped with the good safety features including dual front airbags, ABS and EBD as standard. The Mobilio also gets a very elegant full black interior that adds to the smart look of the cabin. Apart from the features of the base Trend variant, the higher Comfort model trim gets the added features such as body colored door handles, body colored outside rear wing mirrors, driver’s height adjustable seat, audio system along with 4 speakers, rear AC vents and remote controlled central locking system.

The manual model trims of the Honda Mobilio in the South African car market have been tagged at 179,990 to 198,990 Rand (Rs. 9.95 to INR 11.01 lakhs).

Back in the Indian car market, where the new Honda Mobilio continues to get outstanding bookings is not available in its CVT automatic version, though the vehicle comes in both petrol and diesel avatars. The Mobilio CVT is not expected to come to India in the near future, as India is not particularly inclined on AT cars due to expensive price tags and less fuel economy; however things are different with the cheaper AMT variants. A Honda Cars India spokesperson confirmed this by telling the media that in the manual-dominated Indian car market, the Mobilio MPV’s CVT variant will not be launching anytime soon.

India-made Honda Mobilio launches in South Africa with CVT, 9.0 out of 10 based on 1 rating