Honda Cars India preparing to welcome BR-V, may bid adieu to Mobilio

Honda Cars India, the country’s top premium auto maker is all ready to launch its much awaited BR-V compact crossover model in India. The Honda BR-V crossover is scheduled to launch in India towards the end of May this year. This brand new Japanese compact SUV model is expected to come with a price range of Rs. 6 lakhs to Rs 11 lakhs.

While the Honda BR-V’s arrival is highly awaited in India, rumors are rife about the supposed departure of another Honda car. There are high speculations that Honda Cars India might be contemplating the discontinuation of the Mobilio MPV in the domestic car market. Reasons that support these speculations include facts that the Honda Mobilio MPV is being sold in the same price range as the upcoming BR-V’s expected price range, this would definitely affect the sales of the Mobilio. Another reason is that the Mobilio is already stricken with very poor sale and market demands. While the Mobilio received great market response initially after its launch in India, its sales fell massively in the following months. Currently, the Mobilio is the least selling product among all new products of Honda India. These two reasons are enough for Honda Cars India to pull the plug of the Mobilio.

Moreover, Honda India does have some production constraints and the company is always busy slashing the production of its other products whenever it launches a new model. In the past, Honda Cars India had to put the Brio and the City’s production on hold for sometime in order to produce more Mobilio units initially after the MPV’s launch. Now, as the Mobilio is a real slow seller for the company, it might as well stop the production of the Mobilio to make space for the BR-V.

The Japanese car maker sold just 226 Mobilio’s in February and 441 units in January 2016. As per reports, Honda India did not produce the Mobilio MPV at all in the month of October last year owing to poor demands.

Although it is yet not clear whether Honda will withdraw the Mobilio from India or not and there are no official conformations as yet, it is thought that if the company does discontinue the Mobilio, then it will make a clear space for the BR-V.

The Honda BR-V compact SUV was introduced to India at the 2016 Auto Expo last month. The BR-V will be Honda India’s first venture in the country’s immensely popular compact SUV segment and will rival with the Renault Duster and Hyundai Creta among others.

The Honda BR-V packs in a 1.5 liter 4 pot i-VTEC petrol mill that churns out a peak power of 117 bhp at 6,000 rpm and a top torque of 145 Nm at 4,700 rpm, paired to a 6-speed manual and CVT gearbox choice. The India-spec BR-V is also expected to launch with a diesel counterpart that will most probably be powered by the 1.5 liter i-DTEC diesel unit.