Honda launches its first hybrid but expensive car

Japanese Car Manufacture Honda Motors Co. on Wednesday has introduced the first hybrid car rolling on petrol engine and electric battery on Indian roads but with an expensive price tag. Honda Sedan Civic is the first hybrid car, which any company has officially launched on Indian roads.

Equipped with 1.3 litre I-VTEC (Variable Valve Timing and Lift Electronic Control) engine with Integrated Motor Assist (IMA), it provides 19-23 ltr of mileage on three stages of valve timing: low-speed, high-speed, and cylinder idle mode.

The Honda claims that Sedan Civic is incredible in terms of mileage in the comparison of other cars in this segment. It performs 47% fuel efficiency over its regular 1.8 litre petrol Civic car.

Describing the reason, President, Honda Siel Car India, Masahiro Takedagawa said that its all four cylinders can be deactivated and can be operated only by electric motors when the speed is low. Besides, its internal combustion engine becomes switch off when car comes to a stop while the brake pedal is pressed.

The integrated computer controls the fuel consumption and battery charges automatically in the moving car. These cumulative enhanced the car’s fuel efficiency system to very high level.

This factor can be proved vital for the car industry as the prices of crude oil are spiralling speedily and expected to touch the gigantic USD200 by the end of this year. In this situation, the importance of hybrid car has been increased.

But, in terms of price, it pinches the pocket, as it is two times expensive of its lowest patrol car version Civic AT. The Ex-showroom price of this car is Rs.21.5 lakh.

Responding over this huge price, Takedagawa said, “This is because of India’s import duty system on completely built units (CBUs) cars that imposes 104% of import duty.”

Asking for some sweetening in the imposed duty, Masahiro said that on the other hand, Japan and US had cut the import duties on hybrid cars due to being eco-friendly and motivate the carmakers to hike eco-friendly cars by granting subsidy, “But in India, it is too high,” Takedagawa added.

India, however motivates car makers for making indigenous eco-friendly cars by reducing excise and production duty while in CBUs, it charges high import duty.