Mobilio to stay with the BR-V aiding it to uplift Honda’s presence in the segment

Honda Cars India has dismissed rumors of discontinuing the Honda Mobilio. The arrival of the Honda BR-V raised rumors of replacing the Mobilio, but the Japanese automaker confirmed that the BR-V 7-seater and the Mobilio will be two different models which will both be seen in the market together.

The BR-V 7-seater crossover will enter the market around June this year. The rumors of the upcoming car replacing the Mobilio stemmed from specs comparisons of these two models. Being somewhat similar, it was first imagined, and then declared that the BR-V will consume the sales of the Mobilio.

As they say, all rumors do have some truth in it, it is probably time Honda should consider the usefulness of the Mobilio in the market. The car has sold only 3,338 units in the August 2015 to January 2016 time space. The car has managed to bring Honda, just under 3 percent shares in the MPV segment.

New rumors claim that Honda is planning to introduce a new facelift of the Mobilio to let the model have another chance in the market. Though nothing of this has been officially declared or admitted, if Honda is not to discontinue the car, a facelift is the only logical step to take.

If the facelift is happening anytime soon, it is highly likely that the new Mobilio will follow the design language of the 2016 Amaze and take some cues from the Indonesian version of the Mobilio.

The facelift is likely to get some features in tune with the BR-V. For example, the dashboard is likely to be inspired by the BR-V design and so is the MID that is expected to be present in the top trim variants. The facelift will further feature an HVAC system with automatic climate control technology, a new display unit, and restructured instrument cluster and buttons.

However, since it is too early to know if the facelift news too is a rumor, we can only take a closer look at how the current Mobilio is doing in the market. The rumors for a discontinuation stemmed up from a mixture of the BR-V craze and the fact that the sales of the Mobilio is steadily dropping. The car has sold just a little over 10,000 units since March 2015. This averages to 1000 units per month. The lowest sales in recent times were recorded in the November 2015 to January 2016 time gap. The car sold 393, 192, and 441 units respectively in these three months.

At present, the only cars in the segment doing worse than the Mobilio are the Nissan Evalia and the Chevrolet Enjoy. The future of both these cars appear doomed. However, Honda is still trying to get back in the game and give a new competition to the segment leaders, the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga, the Toyota Innova, and the Chevrolet Tavera, all of which are performing well and giving each other a tough competition.

Hence, as of now, the Mobilio is staying and the BR-V will soon be launched to help the Mobilio stabilize the Company’s foothold in the MPV segment.