Honda starts bookings for the HR-V compact SUV in Malaysia

Japanese car major Honda Motor has commenced registering bookings for its new HR-V SUV in the Malaysian car market. Honda has already unveiled the HR-V crossover officially in Malaysia and is now showcasing the vehicle around the country through road shows in order to garner maximum customer interest before the vehicle is actually launched in the country. The new Honda HR-V compact SUV will be officially launched in Malaysia for sale in February, 2015.

The new Honda HR-V compact crossover is essentially the Honda Vezel SUV that has already gone on sale in Honda’s home market, Japan last year. The HR-V will be equipped with a 1.8 liter iVTEC petrol motor that is capable enough to churn out a max power output of 139 hp at 6,500 rpm and a peak torque of 172 Nm at 4,300 rpm. These figures are based on the vehicle’s Thai as well as Australian versions where it is already available. The power figures of the Malaysia-spec HR-V are expected to be similar as its Australian and Thai counterparts. Honda will be launching the new HR-V in Malaysian car market in three model trims, namely the base ‘S’ model, the mid level ‘E’ model trim, and the top of the range ‘V’ variant.

The stylish and premium quality Honda HR-V is packed with great design and creature comfort features. The HR-V will offer the feature such as highly stylized LED headlights, attractively designed LED tail lights, LED daytime running lamps, keyless entry, pushbutton start stop system, cruise control, large 7 inch touchscreen integrated infotainment system, advanced audio system with 6 speakers and many more. As far as the reports go, the large 17 inch alloy wheels of the Honda HR-V in the other markets will be replaced by the smaller 16 incher alloy wheels for the Malaysian-spec model.

As far as the Indian car market is concerned, the earlier speculations of the Honda Vezel or the Honda HR-V coming to the Indian SUV market has been negated for quite some time now. The Japanese car maker was considering the HR-V for the very popular Indian sub-compact SUV market as well, but later dropped the idea as it figured out it won’t be able to bring down its price to suite the Indian market requirements.

However, the fast growing compact crossover market of India will surely get a new vehicle from Honda as well. The car maker is reportedly busy working on a cheaper compact SUV model based on the capable and versatile platform of the Brio to be launched in the Indian car market.

On the other hand, the HR-V is based on the new-generation Honda Jazz premium hatchback, which is slated for its Indian launch this year. As per reports, Honda Cars India is all prepared to launch the new generation Jazz hatchback in the Indian car market in the month of July this year.